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Labour/Le Travailleur

Reviews / Comptes Rendus

Volume 19, 1987

URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/llt19rv01

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Publisher(s) Canadian Committee on Labour History

ISSN 0700-3862 (print) 1911-4842 (digital)

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Cite this review (1987). Review of [Reviews / Comptes Rendus]. Labour/Le Travailleur, 19, 169–252.

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Leo Panilch and Donald Swanr, From Consent to Coercion: The Assault on Trade Union Freedoms by Glen Makahonuk / 169 Ian McKav, The Craft Transformed: An Lssav on the Carpenters of Halifax. 18X5-1985 by Michael Kazin / 171 Mike Solski and John Smaller, Mine Mill- The Htstors of the International I'man of Mine. Mill and Smelter Workers in Canada Sou e 1895 by Douglas O. Baldwin / 173 Gordon Inglis. Mare Than Just a Union: The Stor\ of the SFFAWL by Bryanl Fairlcy / 174 Viclor Howard. "We Were the Salt oj the F.arth!" A Narrative of The On To Ottawa Trek anil the Ref-ina Riot by Michiel Horn / 177 Mervin Y.T. Chen and Thomas G. Regan, Work in the Changing Canadian Stnietv by Joseph Smucker / 179 J.B. Cunningham and T H. While, eds.. Quality «! Working Life: Contemporary Cases by James Rineharl / ISO Henri Gagnon. l.e\ P M.F.. lies pelites el movennes entreprises) a I'agonie h\ Geoffrey Kv.en / IH2 Jonalhan Lomax, Fits! and Foremost in Commitnit\ Health Centre'.: The Centre in Saitlt Sle Marie and the PHC Alternative* b> Theodore H. Tulchinsky / 1X3 Brit- H. Monkkonen. ed , Walking. to Work. Tramps in America. I7W-19J5 by Michael B Kal/ / I X5 Philip S Foner, The Workiniiinen's Party of the I nited Slates: A History of the hirst Mat \i\l Fart\ in the Americas by W.M. Dick / 1X7 David J. Hogan. Class and Reform: School and Society in Chicago. I880-I9M) by Dan Hawthorne / 189 Naomi R. Lamoreaux, The Great Merger Movement in American Business. /895-1904 by Stephen Seheinberg / 1911 Pele Daniel, Breaking the Land. The I ransformation of Cotton. Fohaico. and Rice Cultures Since 1880 h> Sieven Hahn / 191 Peter Carlson. Roughneck. The Life and I lines of Big Bill Huvwootl by Mark l.eicr / 193 Donald F,. Winiers, Jr., The Soul of the Wobhlies: The I.W.W.. Religion, and Ameritan Culture in the Progressive lira. 1905-1917 h\ Clurk Halker / 195 Allan Keni Powell, The Next lime We Strike. Labor in the Utah Coal Fields. I900-I9.ij by Dave Roediger / 196 Joe William Trotter. Jr.. Black Milwaukee: The Making of an Industrial Proletariat. 1915-1945 by James R. Barrel! / 198 Royden Harrison and Jonathan Xeillin. eds . Divisions of labour. Skilled Workers and let hnological Change in Nineteenth Century Britain by Alvin Finkel / 201 H. Gustav Klaus. 'The Literature of Labour: Two Hundred Years of Working-Class Writing bj Graham Carr / 203 K.I). Hrown, ed.. The First Labour Parts: 1906 1914 by Melvin Shells / 206 4 Alex Callinicos and Mike Simons, The Great Strike — The Miners' Strike of 1984-5 and Its Lessons by Frank Roberts / 207 David I. Kertzer, Family Life in Central Italy, I880-I9I0: Sharecropping, Wage Labor and Coresidence by Franca lacovelta / 209 Albert Szymanski, Class Struggle in Socialist Poland by Thomas Rutman / 212 John Riddelt, ed., Lenin's Struggle for a Revolutionary International. Documents 1907-1916: The Preparatory Years by Christopher Schenk / 214 Mark Halstrom, Industry and Inequality: The Social Anthropology of Indian Labour by Hugh Johnston / 217 Verity Burgmann, 'In Our Time': Socialism and the Rise of Labor, 1885-1905 by Jeremy Mouat / 219 Edward D. Beechert, Working in Hawaii: A Labor History by Catherine LeGrand / 220 Joan Kelly, Women, History, and Theory by Linda Kealey / 222 " Helen Remick, ed., Comparable Worth and Wage Discrimination by Roberta Edgecombe Roth / 224 Kathryn M. Borman, Daisy Quarm, and Sarah Gideonse, eds., Women in the Workplace: Effects on Families by Arlene Tigar McLaren / 226 Laurie Larwood, Ann H. Stromberg, Barbara A. Gutek, eds., Women and Work, An Annual Review by Anita Clair Fellman / 228 Paul Willman and Graham Winch, Innovation and Management Control: Labour Relations at BL Cars by Wayne Lewchuk / 230 Tom Juravich, Chaos on the Shop Floor: A Worker's View of Quality, Productivity and Management by Robert Wrenn / 232 Christopher Eaton Gunn, Workers' Self-Management in the United States by Gerry Hunnius / 234 William DeFazio, Longshoremen: Community and Resistance on the Brooklyn Waterfront by Eli Zaretsky / 236 Ellen Meiksins Wood, The Retreat From Class: A New "True" Socialism by Bryan D. Palmer / 237 R.E. Pahl, Divisions of Labour by Paul Phillips / 240 William B, Gould IV, Strikes, Dispute Procedures, and Arbitration: Essays on Labor Law by Paul Craven / 242 Eric Schragge, Pensions Policy in Britain: A Socialist Analysis by David P. Williams / 243 Charles Handy, The Future of Work: A Guide to a Changing Society by W. Warren Wagar / 247 C. Stewart Doty, The First Franco-Americans. New England Life Histories From the Federal Writers' Project, 1938-39 par Pierre Anctil / 247 Marie Lavigne Yolande Pinard, Travailleuses et feministes: Les Femmes dans la societe quebec oise parDenyse Baillargeon / 250 REVIEWS / COMPTES RENDUS

Leo Panitch and Donald Swart/, From third, the increasing frequency of perma­ Consent to Coercion: The Assault on nent legislation restricting trade union Trade Union Freedoms (Toronto: rights." (39) A new era of permanent Garamond Press 1985). exceptionalism was created in its place. This new era marks a return to the situa­ THIS IS AN IMPORTANT and timely tion in which the state and capital rely on polemical study of the recent assault on coercion, fear, and force to subordinate trade union rights in Canada. Most of this labour. This is not to imply a return to the short monograph, part of Garamond's state's use of the police as the only means Network Basic Series, appeared in to coerce labour, but rather to the formal Labour/Le Travail 13 (Spring 1984), as use of coercion in the rule of law. an article entitled "Towards Permanent Exceptionalism: Coercion and Consent in But what is meant by free collective Canadian Industrial Relations." The arti­ bargaining and when did it exist? The cle was based on an earlier paper prepared industrial relations orthodoxy, as Panitch for an October 1982 conference on public and Swartz refer to it, is premised upon sector industrial relations sponsored by the acceptance of the word "free" to the Carleton School of Public Administra­ mean, on the one hand, a balance of tion and the Institute for Research on Pub­ power between capital and labour in the lic Policy. Written in response to the fed­ bargaining process; and, on the other, a eral government's passage of the Public state which acts as an impartial umpire in Sector Compensation Restraint Act (Bill the application and interpretation of C-124) in June 1982, the only new infor­ impartial rules. The authors argue that the mation in the monograph is the discussion era of free collective bargaining began of the recent passage of provincial anti- with the labour legislation of the 1940s, labour legislation, particularly by the particularly Order-in-Council PC 1003 Bennett government in British Columbia. which was followed by the Industrial Panitch and Swartz argue that the era Relations and Disputes Investigation Act of free collective bargaining came to an of 1948. The provinces followed with end with the introduction of Bill C-124 in similar legislation that granted workers 1982. They suggest this legislation con­ the right to organize, to bargain collec­ stituted an assault on trade union rights tively, to engage in conciliation and arbi­ which was comprised of three factors: tration procedures, and to strike. Such "first, the generalisation of the federal legislation did not evolve through a pro­ government's '6 and 5' restraint legisla­ cess of gradual reformism, but was a tion which temporarily removed the right direct response to the militant labour to strike from most public sector workers struggles of the 1930s and 1940s and the in Canada; second, the partial extension of rise of the Cooperative Commonwealth the restraints to the private sector; and Federation. Indeed, Saskatchewan's CCF government produced, according to the Canadian Congress of Labour's Political Table of Contents for Reviews is on pp. Education Committee, the most progres- 4 & 5. I 170 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL sive labour legislation in Canada when it manent restrictive measures passed in the passed the Trade Union Act of 1944, provinces is also provided. These restric­ Although the so-called era of free col­ tive measures were based on the neo- lective bargaining continued well into the conservative, anti-union logic of premiers 1970s, labour still found itself limited to like Bill Bennett and Peter Lougheed, bargaining on bread-and-butter issues who argued that it was in labour's interest such as wages, hours of work, fringe ben­ to entrust its future to capital. efits, pensions, vacations, sick leave, shift The final and most interesting section premiums, overtime, job promotions, and of the monograph is "Towards the layoff procedures. Rarely has labour. Future," where Panitch and Swart/ evalu­ especially in the public sector, been able ate the labour movement's response to the to make any significant inroads into those new era. Even though they argue that the areas covered by management rights or CLC was able to mount a national one-day prerogatives. Furthermore, when labour strike on 14 October 1976 against the decided to strike in order to back its Anti-Inflation Wage Controls Program demands, the employers were able to call and the B.C. workers were able to create upon the assistance of the state to limit the the Solidarity Coalition with its various effectiveness of the strike. In other words. demonstrations and strikes, the Canadian the master-servant relationship remained labour movement has been "incapable of as the major aspect of the Canadian indus­ undertaking a sustained coordinated trial relations system during the era of so- defense, industrially, politically, ideolog­ called free collective bargaining. ically, of the right to strike." (61) The "Employers and the courts." as H.C authors' explanation for this draws on a Pentland has articulated, "have sought statement by Jean Claude Parrot. In short. laws and practices that will accomplish in Parrot reasons that because workers have the industrial age what the Master and a feeling o( powerlessness and because the Servant Act did in an earlier one: namely structure of the CLC has removed the lead­ to confine sharply attempts by workers to ership from the membership, the labour challenge the authority or interrupt the movement has forgotten the "ABCs of operations of their employers." A case in struggle." (62) point was the federal government's 1975-8 Anti-Inflationary Wage Controls This may be so. but it seems that Program, which suspended free collective Panitch and Swart/ fail to take into con­ bargaining for all workers. sideration the CLC's proposed political strategy tor solving labour's economic This legislation provided the prohlems. As Dennis McDcrmott has groundwork for the period of permanent stated, "the problems are social and eco­ exceptionalism. In their discussion of this nomic but the solution is political." This period, Panitch and Swaru point out that solution involves the adoption of the elec­ the right-wing ideological changes and the toral process for supporting the NDP at the new coercive role of the state has resulted expense of militant industrial action, par­ in the passage of hills at both the federal ticularly the mass general strike. The and provincial levels which attack trade CLC, through its federations and labour union and free collective bargaining councils, firmly believes that only an rights. The provinces followed the lead of elected NDP government can revitalize the the federal government's Bill C-124. capitalist system and resolve labour's Ontario, for example, passed the Inflation problems by passing favourable labour Restraint Act (Bill 179) in September legislation and minor economic and social 1982, placing a 5 per cent limit on com­ reforms. This thinking has been reaf­ pensation package increases. A good firmed at CLC. CUPE, and other union synopsis of the other temporary and per­ conventions. The consequences of such a REVIEWS 171

strategy do not look all that promising working-class ideology which North when one considers the fact that NDP gov­ American "new labour historians" have ernments have on occasion acted against fruitfully pursued are not part of this local labour's interests and have used back-to- study. work legislation to break strikes. An obvi­ However, within its sell-imposed ous example was the Blakeney govern­ limits, there is strength. McKay has pro­ ment's decision to legislate the CUPF. hos­ duced a convincing portrait of one group pital workers back to work during their of union workers over a century of often strike in 1982. wrenching change that was faced, in dif­ Despite the brevity of the analysis of ferent ways, by all skilled trades in Can­ the Canadian industrial relations system ada and the United States. In an engaging. between 1944 and 1985. From Consent to popular style that never condescends to Coercion will be of particular importance readers, he explains how the carpenters of to students of Canadian industrial rela­ Halifax coped with a chronically unstable tions and labour history. It should also be building market, the hostility of large con­ required reading for all trade unionists tractors, and the subdivision of their who are experiencing the assault on their trade. It is a sharply drawn miniature that rights. They should seriously consider captures much that is significant about the Panitch and Swartz's conclusion that largest craft in an industry which has been labour will have to revitalize itself by largely neglected by twentieth-century mobilizing for socialist goals. labour historians absorbed with manufac­ turing workers and the large corporations which employ them. Glen Makahonuk University of Saskatchewan As his title suggests, McKay dwells on the discontinuities in the history of Ian McKay. The Craft Transformed: An Halifax carpenters. He identifies three Essay on the Carpenters of Halifax. periods of change. First, from the 1860s ISH5-I9H5 (Halifax: Holdfast Press to the turn of the century, carpenters 1985). worked for small, locally-based contrac­ tors and spent most of their organizational THIS SMALL BOOK is hedged about with energies attempting to exclude "botches" modest intentions. Ian McKay's task was and other woodworkers who had not to produce a semi-official, centennial his­ served an apprenticeship in the trade. tory of Local 83 of the United Brother­ Down into the 1890s. Local 83 was open hood ot Carpenters and Joiners of to both journeymen and master carpen­ America (UBCJA). and he largely con­ ters, both of whom were threatened by an fined his research to the minute books of influx of outside contracting firms. an organization that seldom numbered as The second period lasted from roughly many as 1.000 dues-payers and usually 1900 into the late 1920s and was marked included far fewer by the new power of "consolidated Following his main source, McKay capitalism." Large construction and mate­ focuses almost exclusively on the institu­ rial supply companies, most of them with tional history of Local 83 — trade rules headquarters in Montreal, transformed the and union bylaws, changes in the person­ urban landscape of Nova Scotia and intro­ nel and political opinions of the leader­ duced machinery and hard-driving fore­ ship, ebbs and flows of membership, men which degraded the skills and self- strikes and collective bargaining, and the respect of carpenters. Local 83 responded effect on the union of laws like the Indus­ by shelving its former emphasis on mutual trial Standards Acts. Such topics as work­ benefits and engaging instead in a series place and community culture and of militant strikes and demands for a gen- 172 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

eral agreement with all building employ­ Before delivering his jeremiad on the ers. During the World War I period, contemporary scene, McKay depicts the class-conscious members elected local union as buffeted over the past century by leaders attached to the resurgent left and the constant storms of economic and became active supporters of the Halifax social change. Outside contractors, new Labor Party. Spurred by the reconstruc­ building materials, technological innova­ tion boom following the huge city explo­ tions, and federal and provincial labour sion of December 1917, the local achieved laws seemed to rock Local S3 this way the largest membership in its history. and that, and unionists reacted defensively or simply acquiesced. They showed little McKay argues that the third period. recognition of themselves as self- from 1926 to the present, has been one in conscious agents. makers of their own his­ which Local 83 (and. by extension, the tory. Thus, when McKay inserts his own entire Canadian labour movement) has political agenda into the story, it is not been restrained within the bounds of convincing. "industrial legality." His argument is similar to that advanced by Marxist schol­ In fact, his treatment of labour politics ars such as David Montgomery, Stanley is the weakest part of the book. For exam­ Aronowilz, and Bryan Palmer. Legisla­ ple. McKay argues that the turn towards tion passed in the 1930s and 1940s which radicalism in the 1920s was due to post­ forced contractors to recognize unions, war unemployment and a final attempt by bargain seriously, and abide by the letter carpenters to preserve their craft status. of signed agreements seemed to unionists But there is no discussion of ideological to be a great advance. But by the 1960s traditions which may have encouraged the the effect of these laws was to place union members of Local 83 to vote for commu­ power in the hands of bureaucratic offi­ nist and labourist officials. After all, eco­ cials who were often corrupt and to sur­ nomic hardship did not, in other times, render to employers all control over how provoke a move to the left. His discussion work was done. Unlike most authorized of the local's decline over the past genera­ histories, McKay's book is no celebratory tion similarly lacks an examination of tract. It ends with the stern judgement what rank-and-file carpenters were think­ that, "Business unionism, which turned ing and why or whether they changed their against labour politics and a vision of minds. Here, his reliance on minutes of labor as part of a broad struggle for social local meetings hinders a broader under­ justice, now finds itself unable to motivate standing. Oral history would have unionists to undertake the hard task of enriched the formal record. rebuilding the labour movement." (143-4) Yet, when he sticks to the chronicle of The problem with such an approach is workplace and bargaining table, McKay that McKay provides scant evidence that succeeds splendidly. His mierocosmic the members of Local 83 ever really perspective allows him to gauge the wanted to enlist in a social movement impact of specific building projects on the instead of a trade union with limited ends. labour market, and he includes a number Except for the half-decade following of anecdotes which allow one to visualize World War 1, Halifax carpenters seemed, the carpenters of Halifax as more than from McKay's own account, to be prima­ 'economic men." The book begins with a rily concerned with protecting their skills vivid account of the 1884 speech by and jobs and holding the line on wages. At UBC'JA founder P.J. McGuire which the end of a bitter 1919 strike, craft work­ inspired the Halifax labour movement to ers (joined by other building trades work­ launch boycotts and local unions and. ers) even chose a friendly employer to rep­ throughout. McKay enlivens his narrative resent their interests on the arbitration with biographical sketches and telling board. quotations. The shell of good histories of REVIEWS 173 the North American building trades is a and Smaller credit the Western Federation short one, but The Craft Transformed cer­ of Miners and Mine-Mill with achieving tainly deserves a place on it. nearly every major advancement in hours, wages, and working conditions made in Michael Kazin the United States and Canada. American University The fourth chapter examines the 1941 Kirkland Lake strike in northern Ontario. Mike Solski and John Smaller, Mine Mill: Reprinted newspaper editorials and parti­ The History of the International Union of cipants' reminiscences detail the events of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers in Can­ the strike from the union's perspective. ada Since 1895 (Ottawa: Steel Rail Pub­ Despite the opposition of the "arrogant, lishing 1984). nose-thumbing mine owners," who were "luxuriating in vast estates or castles," the MINE MILL IS THE STORY of the Kirkland Lake strike ultimately forced the lUMMSW's struggle to achieve workers' federal government to enact PC 1003, a rights, and its 1960s absorption by the law which enabled workers to select their United Steelworkers of America. Both own union. This chapter has no surprises. authors thoroughly influenced Mine-Mill Readers would be better advised to con­ politics, Mike Solski as chairman of the sult Laurel Sefton MacDowell's equally Sudbury union's organizing committee, sympathetic, but more profound analysis and secretary-treasurer and later president of the strike and its subsequent impact. of Local 598, and John Smaller as a Sud­ The strength of this study lies in the bury staff member in charge of public final chapter on Sudbury Local 598, Can­ relations and the union's weekly news­ ada's largest trade union local. Occupying paper. Despite their promise to relate more than one-third of the text, this sec­ Mine-Mill's history "objectively and yet tion draws heavily on the authors' per­ passionately," the latter tone usually pre­ sonal experiences and taped interviews to dominates. As well although the book is explain the success of the United Steel- apparently based upon "sources too workers of America in forcing Mine-Mill numerous for a detailed accounting of into the 1967 merger. To bolster their out­ credits," the reader is often treated to page rage at this event, the authors delve into after page of material reproduced from the social, economic, and cultural benefits published reminiscences or a few selected the workers and their spouses had gained newspapers. before the Steelworkers' raids began in The first section recounts Mine-Mill's the 1950s. According to Solski and origins, growth, and demise in separate Smaller, the order to destroy Mine-Mill chapters devoted to the United States, as came from American politicians, business well as western Canada and northeastern owners, and unions caught in the anti- Canada. Unfortunately, this topical communist hysteria of the McCarthy era. arrangement, emphasizing organizational Mackenzie King's "subservience" to drives, strikes, and prominent individuals Washington, and the hostility of such produces many redundancies without ade­ Canadian government agencies as the quately comparing the three regions. Brief Ontario Labour Relations Board individual biographies and anecdotes enli­ facilitated the Steelworkers' raids. Once ven the text but fail to characterize work­ Mine-Mill was labelled communist, ing conditions in the mines adequately. almost every influential Canadian organi­ Continuous harassment by government zation joined the "conspiracy" to destroy and mine owners provides'the connecting the union. With the active support of the theme as the authors move from one out­ Roman Catholic church, the CC¥. the rage perpetrated on the miners to another. Thompson newspaper chain. Maclean's Despite this determined resistance, Solski magazine, and such high profile jour- 174 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL nalists as Pierre Berton, USWA Canadian is a social movement with members and Director Charles H. Millard initiated a purposes not traditionally associated with "boring from within" campaign which trade unions. The NFFAWU has always eventually succeeded, thanks to "traitors" included not only workers in processing within the ranks of Mine-Mill. plants and on large fishing vessels (trawl­ The writing style in Mine Mill is ers) owned by some plant owners, but lively, and the narrative is supported by also the owner-operators of small and numerous excellent photographs. Unfor­ large "inshore" fishing boats, the latter tunately, the authors lack objectivity. "longliners" valued at $50,000 to Their union battles emerge as "good $500,000. and the employees of the long- guys" combating "bad guys." Mine-Mill liner owners (so-called "sharemen") as can do nothing wrong, in their view, well. The union has always been in the whereas the Steelworkers, supported hy a immediate business of negotiating not subservient Canadian government and only wages for trawler and plant workers, communist-baiting press, can do no good. but also fish prices to be paid to fish- Surprisingly, Solski and Smaller never catching enterprises by processing plants. address the question of whether Mine- Most importantly, the union has also Mill was communist, nor whether its always had a stated political and social opponents truly believed it was a cog in an goal of restructuring the whole fishery international communist conspiracy. society in Newfoundland to remove from centrestage the fish-processing companies (and the paternalistic relations associated Douglas O. Baldwin with their dominance), and these aims University of have been equated with the historic strug­ Prince Edward Island gles of fishers against the oppression of the Newfoundland merchantocracy. To Gordon Ingli.s, More Than Just u Union: these ends the union has produced sophis­ The Swr\ of the NFFAWU (St. John's: Jes- ticated analyses of the development of the person Press 1985). fishery. Usually the bottom line of such interpretations stress policy proposals for THli RISE OF the "lishcrnien's union" is a change in the entire system so that the one of the most significant developments profitability of fish-catching enterprises in Newfoundland society and in the fish­ and fair wages are assured. These goals ing industry in the Atlantic provinces. were most vigorously (but unsuccessfully) From 1970 to 1980, the Newfoundland pursued in 1980 when the union's 10,(KK) Fishermen, Food and Allied Workers inshore members engaged in a six-week Union (NFFAWU). now formally Local boycott of the major processing com­ 1252 of the United Food and Commercial panies. Workers International Union, grew from fewer than 1,000 to some 23,000 mem­ Although studies of episodes in the bers. It encompassed virtually all those union's history have been published working full-time in the Newfoundland before (notably David Macdonald's fishery, and had become a power to be analysis of the trawler workers' strike in accounted for by employers and in state 1974-5, 'Power Begins ui the Cod-End' ), policy. Since 1980 the union has moved Gordon Inglis' book is the first general beyond Newfoundland to represent history. It is beautifully written and tells potato-processing workers in Prince powerfully of the building of the NFFAWU Edward Island and to organize fishery between 1969 and 1980. Inglis focuses on workers in Nova Scotia. the major episodes in the union's history: The fishery union is really remarkable its founding in 1969-71, the Burgeo and because it is "more than just a union." It the trawler workers' strikes of 1971-2 and REVIEWS 175

1974-5, and the 1980 action by inshore Since Burgeo was a one-company town fishers. The book will interest more than and Lake owned the supermarket, the bar­ those readers with expert knowledge of bershop, and the dairy, this was a substan­ Newfoundland and the fishing industry. tial threat. More absurd was Lake's alien­ Each of the events dealt with is prefaced ation of all possible public allies in New­ by character sketches of the leading foundland, to the union's gain: actors, details on the structure of the industry, and background in Newfound­ Lake could usually be depended upon to enli­ land social and cultural history. ven interviews with denunciations of the NFFAWU as "a conspiracy by the United More than anything, Inglis' selection Church, the Roman Catholic Church, political of events, detailed background, and narra­ opportunists like [union president! Richard tive style, draw attention to the basis of Cashin. and union gangsters from Chicago." the "counter-hegemonic" capacity of the Sometimes he added lines like, "and I don't fishery union: to why in the 1970s its give a damn if you print that," which were duly agenda for reform was often the agenda printed. Lake neither liked nor trusted the for a diverse range of classes and class press, and the reporters often turned his attacks fractions in the Atlantic fishing industry back upon him. Evening Telegram reporter and in Newfoundland society. His treat­ Ron Crocker opened one story by quoting ment of the nine-month strike in 1971 -2 at Spencer's first words on meeting him; "1 don't even know you yet. But as far as I'm concerned a fish-processing plant in Burgeo on the you're a p--k like the rest of them." (145) southwest coast of Newfoundland is a case in point. This industrial action estab­ With enemies like this, who needs delib­ lished the popular perception of the union erately to make friends? as a leading social critic, and it cemented Inglis' treatment of the lengthy trawler the class alliances the NFFAWU repre­ workers' strikes in 1974 and 1975 shows sents. Inglis* account shows that this the impact circumstances and the right owed far more to the nature of the opposi­ issue also had in establishing the union's tion, to the obstinacy, stupidity, and hegemony. As it applied to the workers cupidity of the employer, Spencer Lake, employed on company-owned trawlers at than to the substance of the union's issue in the actions were not wages, but demands for a moderate wage increase the "co-adventurer" or "co-venturer" sys­ and a compulsory dues checkoff. (122-3) tem under which non-owners of a fishing Instead of co-opting the local leadership vessel are considered to be entrepreneurs by immediately recognizing the union and on an equal footing with the owner and keeping discussions lo wages and bene­ paid by a share of the catch — with an fits. Lake took unionization as "a genuine obvious implication: vote of non-confidence against" himself: A union publication at the time of the strike Lake talked to his workers, telling them that described one... trip in 1974 on which a the NFFAWU was backed by "gangsters from Fishery Products trawler landed a volume of Chicago" who only wanted their dues. In a let­ fish that would, in normal circumstances, have ter, he informed workers that he and his wife given each crewman a share of about $300.00. had talked the matter over and concluded that In the plant it was discovered thai the fish were they could not tolerate a union in the fish plant: worthless because something the fish had been "We both feel that Burgeo would not be worth eating made the flesh unusable. According lo living in under these conditions — therefore we the Union's account, the workers who would most likely have to sell the plant and unloaded the fish, the cutters who discovered move away. ... I would like you all to think its condition, the labourers who eventually this matter over very seriously before you sign dumped it were all paid at their regular hourly up to have a union in Burgeo. because 1 am rales: the fishermen, after ten days of hard afraid I could not operate under such circum­ work at sea, received nothing at all. (209-10) stances." (116. 121) Pay for work! On such an issue one could 176 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

hope to move most of thinking society — tinuities between it and the historical and that was ultimately the case. experience of Newfoundlanders — in con­ Most interesting, however, given the tributing to its hegemony. Among these acclamation the union enjoyed following were, in a province with a history of per- the overthrow of the co-adventurer sys­ sonalism in politics, the many facets of tem, was how little the union's agenda Richard Cashin, the union's first and only actually had to do with the outcome. The president, and Desmond McGrath, the lib­ first strike began as a spontaneous action eral, libcrationist Catholic priest who of trawler workers, when those working played a central role in organizing fishers for Fishery Products were called out to a and founding the NKFAWU. Most interest­ mass meeting in support of inshore ing arc the similarities Inglis points to fishers. between the experience of evangelical Christianity in rural Newfoundland and "We just wanted to put a bit of pressure on union-organizing: Fishery Products," Cashin says, "to get them to settle the inshore strike at Port an Choix. . . . It was not an easy audience — the Bonavista And it was working. . . . Then tlie Atlantic Fish Bay men listened impassively and the visitors Processors boats lalsol began to tie up at [Cashin and McGrath] could not tell what sort Marystown. .. . Then I get a call from Hill of impression they were making. When the Morrow [of National Sea Products] and he was speeches were finished, one after another, mad as hell. He was furious — one of his boats fishermen stood and spoke in response. Older had tied up. So I'm. . . still on the phone: "Get men first, then younger, they told of their own the Atlantic Fish boats back! Get the National experiences of injustice and hardship. ... To Sea boats back!..." But, anyway, we couldn't Cashin and McGrath it was a baffling perform­ get them to sail. ... So we thought. 'Oh, my ance, and it was not until much later they God, we're into it now!' There was nothing we realized that. . . like a Methodist or Sal­ could do but go ahead with it. (203-4) vationist congregation, the fishermen were In the second strike, the co-adventurer confirming the "sermons" with personal tes­ system was put on the agenda not by the timony. (31) union, which "had made no specific The strength of More Than Jus! a demands," (213) but by a conciliation Union, however, is also its greatest weak­ board appointed to end the first wildcat strike. Also significant was the support of ness. In focusing on the successful growth St. John's interests, expressed in a front­ of the fishery union as a comprehensive page editorial in the Daily News, "the organization of fishers and plant workers, newspaper that during the Burgeo strike and in becoming absorbed by his narra­ had published... attacks on 'wrecker tive, Inglis fails to treat the unions' Cashin. the butcher of Burgeo':" agenda for reform as an object of analysis. If the union is a "social movement," then "Co-adventure is a foolish anachronism. . . . where is it "moving" society? What arc Who but the merchants, steeped in historic the implications of its policy proposals arrogance, would dare cling to the idea of equal and pursuits for the development of the risk, more or less, between a trawlerman and fishery? What does it foreclose, as well as his co-adventurer fish baron?" (226) make possible? Given the diversity of its The union's achievement was that when membership, who has gained or lost the handed the ball, it did not fumble, and in most in the process? Most important, the process it managed to extract some what are the limits of the alliance repre­ concessions for inshore fishers (price sub­ sented by the NFFAWU: at what points sidies) as well. docs the alliance break down because the Inglis* account also stresses the impor­ bona fide interests of some categories of tance of what the NFFAWU did not bring membership are contradicted by further into question — the less tangible con­ demands and struggles? REVIEWS 177

Beyond what the union itself has had relief camps most transients did whatever to say, that in relation to the fish process­ came to hand, including begging and ors all its members are in the same boat, petty theft, simply to keep alive. (292) Inglis says little about these ques­ Victor Howard's interest in these men, tions. Similarly, conflicts within the union or rather the politically active among are rarely examined, and when they are them, goes back almost two decades. In (as in the treatment of the 1972 Locking 1967 he interviewed approximately 30 affair, when the international union repre­ men as part of his research for a book on sentative was essentially purged from the the Canadians who fought in the Interna­ NFFAWU for opposing the inclusion of the tional Brigades during the Spanish Civil fishers) they are presented as tactical dis­ War of 1936-9. That book, published as putes in which the only issues were the The Mackentie-Papinetiu Battalion in efficacy of a comprehensive union and its 1969 (the author's last name at the time continued unity — and not the policies a was Hoar), was followed in 1973 by an comprehensive organization should pur­ edited volume, Ronald Liversedge's sue. Recollections of the On-To-Ottawa Trek, But none of this detracts from the fact to which Howard had added a number of that, in capturing the fishery union as it related documents. Now we have How­ appeared in popular politics, Inglis' work ard's own narrative account of the trek and will be the touchstone for further analyses the regina riot of Dominion Day, 1935. It of the union and Newfoundland society. is a valuable addition to the literature on the depression years.

Bryant Fairley Howard has written a meticulously Queen's University detailed account of the Relief Camp Workers Union (RCWU) strike which Victor Howard. "We Were the Suit of the began on 4 April 1935 in the federal relief Earth!" A Narrative oj The On-To-Oltawc camps located in British Columbia. By Trek and the Regina Riot (University of mid-April 1,500 strikers were in Vancou­ Regina: Canadian Plains Research Cenier ver, hoping to win their demands. Initially 19X5). there were seven of them of which "work with wages" was the most important. THE 1930S IN CANADA witnessed many Although the strikers managed to obtain failures. Perhaps none was greater than some minor concessions from the city of government's failure to deal humanely Vancouver, the provincial and federal and effectively with the tens of thousands governments stonewalled. In late May the of transients who roamed across the coun­ strike was on the verge of collapsing. It try in search of work. Usually though not gained new life when a majority of those invariably single men, they were often still striking voted to take their protest to ineligible for unemployment relief in their Ottawa. On 3 and 4 June rather more than own right even in [heir home communities a thousand left Vancouver on top of CPR (if they had one; not a few of them were boxcars. fairly recent immigrants). When they hit By the time the On-To-Ottawa Trek the road or. more commonly, the rails, moved out of Calgary on 10 June, it con­ they soon found that residency require­ sisted of 1,400 men. The Bennett govern­ ments barred them from all bul the most ment had no intention of allowing an aug­ temporary relief wherever they went. Free mented number to reach Ottawa, and took market theory favours a labour force that the steps necessary to halt the trek in can move to where the jobs arc. But Regina. The choice was deliberate, How­ throughout the 1930s there were not ard writes: Saskatchewan had a Liberal enough jobs. Until the establishment of government, and Regina was held to be a 178 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

safer place than Winnipeg or some more subsequent On-To- Victoria Trek. Like the easterly city. In spite of Premier James trek of 1935, the later incident failed in its Gardiner's vigorous complaints, the attempt to induce governments to provide RCMP, brought under federal control adequately for the single unemployed and through the invocation of the Railway tor transients. Act, stopped the trekkers from moving Indeed, Howard might profitably have further east. Eight delegates were allowed added a few pages to discuss the unwil­ to travel to Ottawa and met Bennett and lingness of the federal government to take his cabinet. This produced no agreement. responsibility for the relief of unemploy­ The federal authorities, who had agreed to ment in general, and tor unemployed sin­ provide relief to the trekkers while gle people in particular. The argument, of negotiations were taking place, withdrew course, was that under the BNA Act this the offer on 26 June; the provincial gov­ responsibility did not rest with Ottawa, ernment again declined to provide relief. Local governments should provide relief, With 340 RCMP officers now at Regina. with the provinces supplying money when the Bennett government decided to arrest necessary. As in the early 1920s, the fed­ the strike leaders. Without them, the trek eral government came reluctantly to pro­ would presumably collapse. A special vide funds to provinces and municipal­ camp had already been prepared at ities. The Bennett government's decision Lumsden. Saskatchewan, to receive the in 1935 to introduce a scheme of unem­ trekkers. ployment insurance was something of an aberration. That it was judged in 1937 to The decision to arrest the strike lead­ be ultra vires is not as important as that it ers while they were addressing a meeting excluded seasonal workers and did noth­ of trekkers and sympathizers in the market ing for the very people Howard writes square on the evening of Dominion Day about, the long-term unemployed. was surely provocative. A riot broke out which took several hours to subdue. How­ Ottawa's relief camps for single men ard's account of the riot makes skillful use were evidence less of an interventionist of interviews and is genuinely gripping. attitude than of the belief that such camps Two short chapters deal with the immedi­ might be a cost-effective method of pre­ ate and longer term aftermath of the venting social disorder. General A.G.L. strike. In the second of these chapters, McNaughton, chief of the general staff. Howard mentions the closing of the camps boasted in 1934 of the low cost of relief by the Mackenzie King government in provided in the camps, which were under 1936, and notes that as many as 400 of the the authority of the Department of relief camp strikers ended up fighting in National Defence. At $1.17 per person- the Spanish Civil War. which broke out in day they were indeed a bargain! The work the summer of that year. done in them was often scarcely worth In ending the book in 1936, Howaid doing, and they were in fact nothing but limits somewhat his book's usefulness holding pens for those who could find no The problem of transiency did not end real work. But no one in Bennett's cabinet with the closing of the federal relief believed that much more could or should camps. King was even less happy to pro­ be done. vide for the unemployed than Bennett had It is possible to point to the huge sums been. The niggardliness of King's govern­ spent in meeting the debt charges of the ment contributed directly to another well- Canadian National Railway system and known incident of the decade, the sit- contrast them with the considerably down strikes in the Vancouver Art Gallery smaller amounts transferred to the prov­ and post office in 1938, the forcible clear­ inces for relief, and the very much smaller ing of the post office building, and the sums spent on the relief camps. But con- REVIEWS 179 servative governments in capitalist stances an author who attempts to please countries are bound to rate the welfare of everyone may satisfy no one. investors higher than that of unemployed The authors of this text follow an workers. The deflation of the early 1930s eclectic survey approach which incor­ made the government's solicitousncss for porates, they claim, analyses of the work investors notably burdensome. Paying the role from both social psychological and full interest on the CNR's bonds and on a structural points of view. "Structure" as national debt bloated by wartime borrow­ they use it simply means "organization" ing nevertheless continued to be seen as a or the structure of work roles. These two sacred trust. perspectives are brought together by their Given the claims on Ottawa's revenues non-controversial assertion that they view at a time when the wish for a balanced persons as workers, working within budget was strong though unfulfilled, the organizations, and affected by the inroads relief camp strikers were bound to fail. of technology. Howard shows quite clearly thai their The first chapter begins with a brief hand was weak. Nevertheless some Cana­ overview of the historical meaning of dians thought that the riot might be the work. Instructors who place some impor­ start of social revolution. The Communist tance on historical transformations in the Party leadership was under no such illu­ place of work in meaning systems or with sion. In spite of being formulated by the cross-cultural comparisons a la Polanyi Communist-dominated RCWU, the trek's will be dissatisfied with the very brief aims were far from revolutionary. They statement. But those who want to get on were also doomed. with contemporary issues in meanings Howard's book is well-written and attached to paid employment will not be well-illustrated. It deals with a fascinating bothered. The first chapter concludes with event, and provided it gets some promo­ an introduction to issues in the study of tion should sell well. Labour historians work and a description of the chapters to will certainly want to add it to their librar­ follow. ies. The authors then describe the charac­ teristics of the Canadian work force, cit­ Miehiel Horn ing problems of definition, detailing his­ York University torical comparisons of the age and gender characteristics of the labour force, shifts Mervin Y.T. Chen and Thomas G. in the occupational structure, and pointing Regan, Work in the Changing Canadian to the enlargement of the service sector. A Society (Toronto: Buttcrworths 1985). section on dependency ratios and a short discussion of future trends based on the THE PROBLEM WITH writing a textbook work of Denton and Spencer rounds out is that while you may think you are writ­ this part of the text. Unfortunately only ing for students, it is their instructors who cursory reference is made to unemploy­ make the decision whether they will use it ment, citing a "host of causes" without or not. Perhaps this is as it should be, but any explanation or assessment of them. instructors vary widely in their approaches Chapters three and four deal with to their subject material. Some instructors occupational choice and socialization to focus upon exegetical analyses of certain work respectively. Here the social psycho­ classic texts, while others stress a survey logical approach is made explicit. The of literature in the field. Some may insist authors present an overview of approaches upon a particular analytic perspective, to the study of career choice, citing the while others are committed to a more fortuitous, the rational decision-making eclectic approach. Under such circum­ approach, and explanatory models, the 180 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

latter incorporating what the authors call side of ambivalence: "Whether we will be "socio-eultural" influences which are able to benefit from the possibilities socio-economic status, parental educa­ offered by the new technology will tion, gender, and ethnicity. Finally the depend on how we manage it. Technology authors present a description of occupa­ is a choice, not a determinant." (236) tional choice as a function of societal allo­ This text would serve those instructors cation of work roles. well who wish to familiarize their students The chapter on socialization to work with contemporary research on work in presents material which follows Everett Canadian society. An excellent bibliog­ C. Hughes" orientation. Most notable here raphy follows the substantive chapters and is a presentation of Haas and Shaffir's in the chapters themselves research find­ study of socialization into the medical ings march smartly across the pages. The profession and Reiner's work on chiro­ march is too swift for my taste. The stu­ practors. A discussion here of the nature of dent can watch the parade but she or he socialization to routine work and the may be left wondering why it got interaction between class of origin and the organized in the first place. But perhaps demands of the job would have added the authors intend this to be the role of the interest. Paul Willis' research in England instructor. provides a good point of departure for analysis at this level. These two chapters Joseph Smucker arc strong on typologies and descriptions Concordia University of other people's works, but short on analysis and explanation. J.B. Cunningham and T.H. White, eds., Chapter five deals with careers and Quulitx of Working Life: Contemporary chapter six with occupational mobility faxes (Ottawa: Labour Canada 1984). The chapters cover the standard issues and in chapter six touch upon some special THIS BOOK CONTAINS fourteen case issues in stratification, most notably the studies of recent Canadian (JWI. initiatives effect of wives' employment on the status al the workplace and one case in which of the family. This chapter also presents employers and unions collaborated ti> statements of functional versus conflict achieve regional labour market stability. theories of stratification. The targets of reform ranged from ware­ Chen and Regan present a straightfor­ house and factory workers to clerks and ward description of organizations in professionals. With the exception of a which several typologies are presented. productivity gainsharing scheme, the pro­ But power and strategies for its deploy­ grammes utilized were of two types ment. both by managers and the managed (sometimes used in tandem) partici­ is not discussed, thus leaving the material pative management and |ob redesign. The relatively lifeless. Labour unions, the former tendency constructs mechanisms authors assert, have become organizations (joint worker/union-management commit­ that are "much too familiar." Again, the tees, works councils, consultative super­ authors treat the material primarily in the vision) which give subordinate employees form of descriptive typologies without a voice in decision-making — usually un much attention to analysis and explana­ matters pertaining to their jobs and imme­ tion. diate work areas. The objective is to alter workers' consciousness, to supplant After reviewing the research on auto­ oppositional with cooperative workers. mation and the effects of technology, pri­ The second approach to reform, job rede­ marily with respect to alienation, job sign (job enrichment, autonomous satisfaction, deskilling. and unemploy­ groups), alters the content of work by ment, the authors come down hard on the REVIEWS 18! adding new tasks and responsibilities to it. jected to rigorous evaluations, enough Although advertised as a means of making information was presented to suggest that labour more satisfying, job redesign, I the QWL gains realized by workers were submit, is employed not to contain resist­ restricted largely to the intangible area of ance and motivate workers but to rational­ intrinsic job satisfaction. (The degree and ize work. Redesign ordinarily is instituted salience of such attitudinal changes usu­ in work settings (like continuous process ally were based on impressions rather than industries) in which maximum job spe­ hard data.) It is undeniable that greater job cialization via Taylorism and Fordism is variety, responsibility, and influence nor­ not the most productive/profitable mode mally are appreciated by workers, but this of organizing the labour process. When advantage of QWL must be weighed motivation is considered crucial to the alongside any tangible losses suffered by "successful" implementation or main­ the work force. For example, at an Air tenance of job redesign, supplementary Canada clerical branch, a Work Improve­ programmes in the participatory/human ment Program paved the way for the sub­ relations genre are installed. For example, sequent introduction of computers, which Petrosar and Shell Sarnia use autonomous led to the automatic monitoring of worker groups in conjunction with joinl commit­ performance and labour elimination. At tees and the abolition of symbols of class an unnamed plant three shoptloor workers differentiation, like time clocks, hourly analyzed work methods and concluded wages, and special parking lots and that "the shop had twice the number of cafeterias for management personnel. people required." New work procedures were adopted, and over a four-year period Several assumptions unite these pro­ the work force was cut back through attri­ grammes (and this collection of articles). tion from 156 to S5 employees. I assume The first stresses mutual benefits. We are the remaining workers were not compen­ reminded repeatedly in these articles that sated for their obviously increased work­ the goal of QWL is to improve both loads. since the issue was not discussed. productivity/profits and life at the work­ At Petrosals Sarnia plant, an explicit place. When properly implemented these objective of "participation" is to prevent reforms produce no losers — only win­ unionization. Autonomous groups at a ners. This article of faith is not challenged Sternberg's warehouse led to the elimina­ by the several "unsuccessful" pro­ tion of part-time employees and induced grammes described in the book, because productivity-oriented workers to police failures are attributed not to the principle the behaviour of their work mates. (The of QWL but to inadequate methods of union finally pulled out of this pro­ implementation, to the loss of top man­ gramme.) There are obvious advantages agement support, to the (irrational?) to the company from labour elimination, actions of parties who feel threatened speed-up, electronic monitoring, no (employees, unions, first-level super­ union, and workers' assumption of man­ visors). A second assumption is that con­ agement control functions. However, to flict between workers/unions and argue that these outcomes benefit workers managers/employers is destructive and in is disingenuous. no one's interests. Over and over again. the authors condemn adversarial relations and praise cooperation. These assump­ The impact of cooperation on employ­ tions are used to disarm skeptics and per­ ees and the company is more difficult to suade them that QWL deserves to be sup­ evaluate, especially inasmuch as assess­ ported. ments of outcomes ordinarily are carried out within an abbreviated time frame. In Although the outcomes of the pro­ the abstract, the plea for harmonious grammes were not. for the most part, sub­ labour-management relations appears 182 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

compelling. But for all their promise of THIS BOOK IS divided into two sections granting employees greater autonomy and linked by the author's concern for the influence and improving worker/union- strategies and direction of the Quebec management relations, QWL programmes labour movement. This is not a scholarly do not alter the structure of workplace work and is intended for a wide audience authority. A university-owned electronics among workers. Despite its title, small- firm staffed by professionals instituted and medium-sized business is discussed employee representation on the board of only briefly and tangentially. directors, an elected employee council, The first section is a tract exhorting and an employee stock purchase plan. organized workers lo fight for control over These changes, which were far more their own pension funds. While this is to ambitious than most participatory-type insure that the contributors benefit fully reforms, did nothing to transform the real from their investments, Gagnon considers locus of power. As a result, employees' these funds an instrument for social and orientations to work and the firm did not economic change Impressed by the change. (This study by Richard Long was Caisse de depot et placement which has exceptionally forthright and rigorously increased the Quebec government's own­ conducted.) The cooperation that prevails ership and control of the economy, he pro­ with QWL is not a relationship among posed that workers do the same. In control equals but operates on management's of their own pension contributions, they terms and under management's domina­ could decide where to create jobs or pro­ tion. Participatory programmes arc not vide services to the community. The geared to creating a community of equals author argues unconvincingly that this but to constructing a "community at would be a more important weapon than work" or an "organizational culture" strikes, which he considers outdated. This which makes management power more belief seems to have grown out of a period palatable and which mutes workers' when walk-outs became increasingly resistance to changes in work methods. unpopular, often hurting the public or technology, and work rules. Moreover, strikers more than employers. Most ol the \"hen a company is not unionized (as in ideas in this work have been presented half of these cases), QWL programmes elsewhere by Gagnon who quotes himself sometimes are used to keep it that several times. way. When a union is present, partici­ pation often is used to neutralize it. If par­ While the second section is entitled ticipation does manage to substitute an "La Fraternite interprovincial des ouvriers enterprise consciousness for a class or en clectricite (la HPOK): un grand syn- union consciousness and if participation dieat," it hardly deals at all with this does contain the union, the eventual result organization. It is a brief history of Mont­ can only be the reduction or elimination of real's Local 568 of the International the conditions — solidarity and militancc Brotherhood of Electrical Workers from — known (historically) to be necessary which the FIPOE emerged in 1972. As for workers to achieve significant president of Local 568 until 1971 and then improvements in the quality of their work­ as one of the initiators of an underground ing life. newspaper, /' Eleetricien an am rant, Gagnon was well placed to explain the James Rinehart developments that led most Quebec University of Western Ontario electricians to leave the IBEW. The 1960s witnessed a massive organizing campaign by Local 568 that successfully recruited Henri Gagnon, Lev P.M.E. (le.s petites et most of the electricians across Quebec. moyennes entrepr'tses) ii I'agonie These workers had been assured that they (Montreal: Edition Heritage 1982). REVIEWS 183 were exempted from contributing to an 1971 through to the secession and on to expensive union pension plan, but after the period of government trusteeship. The the membership drive was over the IBEW circumstances that led Quebec electricians reversed its decision and tried to impose out of the IBEW are probably more com­ the scheme Quebec workers did not want. plex than Gagnon admits. This is a useful The officers of the local refused to com­ source but it does not provide a full ply, in part because this would have left account of an important conflict that even­ the union vulnerable to raids from the tually led to the divorce between the rival Confederation de.s sxndiiuts nation- Canadian Labour Congress and the inter­ aux. The IBKW then placed the local under national building trades unions, and to the trusteeship in 1970 to insure compliance, formation of the Canadian Federation of according to Gagnon. He makes the point Labour. that it was the unwillingness of IBEW leaders in the United States to understand Geoffrey hwen conditions in Quebec and their undemo­ York University cratic rule that led to the formation of the FIPOE. He also shows that Local 568 and Jonathan Lomax, First and Foremost in the FIPOE led the light against the Quebec- Community Health Centres: The Centre in government's control over the pension Sault Ste Marie and the PHC Alternatives funds of construction workers and for the (Toronto: University of Toronto Press right of unions to negotiate their own con­ 1985). tracts in opposition to legislation enacted as of 1968 imposing a powerful govern­ THE HISTORY OF Canada in the third ment presence at the bargaining table in quarter of the twentieth century will have the construction industry. much to say about social policy, and in These conflicts with bureaucratic particular the issue of national health international union bosses and an inter­ insurance, known to all as "medicare." It ventionist Quebec government are pre­ is in this sphere that Canada evolved some sented as a struggle by an organization unique, and indeed exquisite, institutions whose strength derives from the active in health insurance for hospital care, then participation of the membership and that medical services, and for long-term care. this is a tradition that continues: "Les These of course did not emerge of and by membres de la base syndicale ont toujours themselves. The strength of opposition suexprimerleur volonte." (157) It is diffi­ and weight of inertia to do nothing were cult to reconcile this image with Gagnon's formidable opponents indeed. earlier rcproval of the FIPOE. He does not Against this background, a small but discuss the phony elections, strong arm dramatic set of struggles took place in tactics, loan sharking, corruption, and Saskatchewan, Ontario. Quebec, and underworld links that crept into Local 568 Manitoba to change some basic elements starting in 1968, continuing under the in Canada's health care system. These FIPOE. and that he denounced before the struggles were bitterly fought, in some Cliche Commission. The FIPOE was cases by NDP governments, but mostly by formed by the leaders of Local 568 after tiny groups of reform elements against they were charged by IBEW headquarters powerful medical communities and asso­ for selling illicit IBEW memberships to ciated political groupings. Lomax American electricians who could use them describes well, and in parts with dramatic to gain access to preferred jobs in the crescendo, the fight to establish a prepaid United States, but no mention is made of group medical care system in Sault Ste this. It is also curious and unfortunate that Marie, sponsored by the steel workers' he does not follow developments past union, and opposed by the local and pro- 184 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

vineial medical establishments. That the Following the establishment of the struggle took place far from metropolitan centre. Ontario's Conservative govern­ centres, and was small in the scale of ment reluctantly accepted the federal "50 national or international events does not cent dollar" incentive and introduced its diminish its importance in Canada's social medicare plan of universal medical care history. insurance in 1969. The government saw Lomax has done an excellent job of its responsibility to be the provision of an describing the process of development of insurance mechanism only, and it steered an idea, in this case imported from the clear of initiatives to reform the delivery United States but with local modifica­ of health services. As a result "the Sault" tions, and the ensuing external and inter­ and the new St. Catharines health centre nal battles surrounding its implementa­ project were subject to numbing and tion- Regrettably, there is less success in sterile negotiations which led to partial setting the context of the issue and its solutions hobbling the programmes and importance to the whole development of ultimately knocking off the St. Catharines health care organization in Canadian health centre. The government could social evolution. But the book does never bring itself to deal with the basic- achieve its immediate purpose of a issue of funding by capitation payment of descriptive history of "the Sault" health a prepaid group practice based on periodic centre. choice of selection of health care system rather than day-to-day choice of individual The story, briefly, is as follows: in the health care provider (the "freedom of late 1950s in Sault Sle Marie, the steel- choice" issue). workers' union (USWA) led by the redoubtable John Barker, was concerned During the 1970s governments across with available local medical services, par­ Canada had to face the issue of cost con­ ticularly in regard to insufficient numbers tainment to prevent collapse of the univer­ of doctors, lack of specialists, inadequate sal medical care insurance system. At the insurance coverage, over-billing, and long same time it was essential to extend the wailing times. Barker and colleagues range of benefits so as lo lower cost alter­ looked to the American union scene and natives to expensive and unnecessary hos­ saw successful health care organizations, pital care. Some provinces also initiated then called prepaid group practice (PPGP). programmes in reformed health care now known as health maintenance organi­ delivery, province-wide such as in zations (HMO). They liked the approach. Quebec, or in demonstration project and galvanized the union membership and developments such as in Manitoba. In its professional support to go ahead and Ontario, the government stood pal, and develop such a plan in the Sault. The local put the non-government initiatives in medical society, and behind them the pro­ jeopardy from continued medical estab­ vincial medical association, generated and lishment opposition, but more serioush sustained an intense campaign of opposi­ from compromised and unworkable fund­ tion, public and private, that nearly inun­ ing systems. dated and certainly prejudiced the fledg­ ling health care project. Nevertheless the For the involved veteran of such bat­ programme got going with the support of tles, Lomax evokes the lovely and bitter 3,500 steelworkers putting up $135 each conflict. The small scale doesn't diminish by checkoff to provide the facility, and its importance. Unfortunately, the out­ then by their massive support in opting to come was more of a tie than a victory for get their health care in the new centre as one side or the other. The Sault survived, opposed to continuing with the local St. Catharines subsequently collapsed. private medical service. Others were largely peripheral: the initia­ tive for reform of health care delivery in REVIEWS 185

Ontario, and the rest of Canada, except transient labour rather than by any shared Quebec, largely stopped by the mid theoretical, thematic, or methodological 1970s. concern. Two of them treat the itinerant Meanwhile in the United States, poor before industrialization: Douglas HMOs have gone from success to success Lamar-Jones sketches the dimensions of and are now the new favoured "mode" transience in eighteenth-century Mass­ even if still small vis-a-vis the total United achusetts, and Prise ilia Ferguson Clement States population. In Canada, reform of delineates the history of the relations health care delivery has been put either on between the wandering poor and social simmer, or off the governmental stove welfare in early nineteenth-century altogether. What will happen to this issue Philadelphia. Through case studies of car­ in the remainder of the 1980s and the penters, cigar-makers, and the labour 1990s remains to be seen. press, Jules Tygiel, Patricia A. Cooper, Lomax's book deser\es reading by and Michael Davis explore connections those close to these issues, as well as a between tramps and organized labour. wider audience of those interested in the Lynn Weiner examines the relations social history ol Canada. between gender and tramping in her over­ view of women tramps; Eric Monkkonen explicates the most important regional dif­ Theodore H. Tushinsky ferences in tramping; and John C. Director of Personal and Community Schneider argues that tramps formed a Preventative Health Services distinct subculture. Jerusalem. Israel In his introduction, Monkkonen E-ric H. Monkkonen, ed., Walking to stresses the relation of tramping to the his­ Work: Trumps in America. /790-IV35 tory of the labour market. In nineteenth- (University ot Nebraska Press: Lincoln century America, he argues, "the growth and London 19X4). of the numbers of tramps directly paral­ leled the growth of industrial capitalism. THROUGHOUT AMERICA in the 1870s. The decline of the industrial tramping sys­ social commentators began to use tem by the 1920s coincided with the "tramp" as a noun to describe the emergence of corporate capitalism and the increased numbers of itinerant persons on modern welfare state. . . . Tramps the road in search of work, shelter, and were ... the ordinary working people of food. Despite respectable America's the United States on the move between obsessive fear of tramps, almost no histo­ jobs and residences. . . . Tramps were not rians paid much attention to them until the a reserve army at all, but rather a highly last few years, when new emphases in mobile infantry." This interpretation of social and labour history independently tramping as a product of economic cycles, led a number of scholars to rediscover seasonal demands for labour, and the Iheir important role in Gilded Age and structural transformation ot production. Progressive era experience. In Walking to claims Monkkonen, is the thread that Work, Fric Monkkonen has brought unites the diverse essays in his book. together a sampling of this recent work on Although he is ri^ht about tramping's tramps. His book usefully demonstrates labour market role, the essays, which are the variety ot questions about tramps cur­ a good deal less consistent than he rently addressed by historians and the implies, raise other important themes as wide range of methods and data they well. employ. The first is definitional. Who was a The essays cover a broad array ol tramp'.' Throughout the book the term is topics which are united by their focus on used differently. In tact, most often it 186 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

shades into transience, which is the mined, for the most part, by railroad book's real focus. Indeed, by implication lines, which provided tramps with their the essays show how impossible it is to major form of transportation. draw a distinct line between unemployed Despite its utility. Walking to Work workers on the road in search of jobs and a has some serious limitations. Aside from subculture of professional, permanent Clement, the authors do not situate tramps vagabonds. Tramp, it turns out, is another within the history of the so-called able- one of those ideological constructs (like bodied poor. Yet, the story of poor relief the unworthy poor) that divided the work­ is as important as industrial structure to ing class against itself, dampened charita­ the history of tramps. Indeed, poor relief, ble impulses, and legitimated harsh, puni­ industrial organization, and tramping tive methods of social discipline and were as interconnected as the three sides labour market regulation. of a triangle, Perhaps therein lies a clue to Second, the essays highlight the con­ an important issue that none of the con­ trast between image and actuality. Tramps tributors explore; the reasons for the were not, as contemporary commentators puz/ling hatred and fear of tramps in late asserted, lazy, violent, dishonest outcasts. nineteenth-century America. From their By and large, they did not spend their win­ start in the 1870s, discussions of tramps ters luxuriating in southern sunshine. reeked of hostile emotion. Given the use­ Instead, they were mostly young, unmar­ fulness of a flexible labour force, the ried white men willing, indeed eager, to structural reasons why most men tramped, work. (On this point, my own research on and the long history of working-class tramps in New York State in the 1870s, transience in America, it is not completely reported in Poverty and Policy in Ameri­ clear why respectable citizens trans­ can History, reveals exactly the same fea­ formed itinerant workmen into subhuman tures.) objects of disgust. In the same years, hos­ tility to other dependent people also Third, tramps played an important role escalated, and, throughout the country, in the creation of working-class institu­ citizens reduced or abolished municipal tions and culture. This is the book's most outdoor relief, deployed the techniques of counter-intuitive point. They did not scientific charity to toughen private relief retard the development of labour unions or practice, and used the latest research on working-class cohesion. To the contrary, heredity (soon to be incorporated into the they helped nationalize some trades. In eugenics movement) to define tramps and fact, some important crafts (for instance, paupers as biologically degraded. As cigar-makers and carpenters) incorporat­ much as the industrial revolution, this war ed tramping into their trading and organi­ on poor relief and its unfortunate recip­ zation. ients is central to the history of tramps in Fourth, the reasons why individuals late nineteenth-century America. tramped were complex. Some men tramped to find work; for others, tramping Unfortunately, Walking to Work is not was a part of the working-class life cycle, adequately edited. The essays could be and they tramped for a few years in their tied together and cross-referenced much youth; for much smaller numbers, tramp­ more thoroughly, and the uneven quality ing became a preferred way of life. Of of individual contributions could have these reasons, the intersection of tramping been reduced. Except for Monkkonen's and the life cycle is the freshest and most essay, most of the quantification is weak, heuristic observation. indeed, below currently acceptable stand­ Fifth, tramping was not random. ards in social history. Nonetheless, it Rather, it followed definite patterns deter­ remains an intelligent, provocative eollee- REVIEWS 18-7

tion that opens an important neglected A. Sorge, Marx's chief lieutenant and topic in American history. main correspondent in America, played down immediate political action and Michael B. Katz instead emphasized the importance of University of Pennsylvania building a strong trade union movement. Philip S. Foncr, The Workingmen's Party The platform therefore represented a tem­ of the United States: A History oj the First porary victory for the Marxists. Marxist Party in the Americas (Min­ The party was not lo last. True, it was neapolis: MfcP Publications 1984). able to increase its following through its role in the great strikes of 1877. That role FERDINAND LASSAI.LE- considered that was chiefly a coordinating one, bringing trade unions were futile and that the work­ together different groups of workers in a ing class should seek emancipation number of cities, but it was also a mod­ through independent politics. Karl Marx erating one since the party cautioned argued that trade unions were the only workers against the use of violence. This sound working-class organizations. Once is ironic since the possessing classes of firmly established, they would provide a America were apt to reiterate the claims of basis for revolutionary politics, but this their Luropean counterparts in claiming development was relegated to the future. social unrest to be the work of conspirato­ Though these two positions were theoreti­ rial socialists. Nevertheless, even if the cally incompatible, German working- influence of the party initially increased, class leaders ignored theory and united the the ultimate effect of the labour unrest two movements - Lassallean and Marxist was a new wave of working-class political — in the Got ha Programme of 1X75. The activity which Lassalleans in the party German Social Democratic Party thus found irresistible. Accordingly they dis­ created became an impressive force in solved the trade union-oriented Work­ imperial Germany. ingmen's Party and founded the Socialis­ tic Labor Party which then bid for elec­ The American socialist movement of toral support in the elections of 1878. the I 870s. largely an affair of German However, as Marxists had predicted, most immigrants, seemed to be about lo follow workers attracted by the idea of a third a similar course. The Workingmen's Party party preferred the alternative Greenback of the United States, formed 19 July Labor Party, which scored quite impres­ 1876. closely resembled the new German sive results. Again, the political socialists party. Its tounding convention had dele­ were left high and dry. gates from the recently dissolved Marxian International, which had transferred its Ultimately the fruits of this experience headquarters from London to New York were threefold. Some members of the in 1872. and from Lassallean groups in Socialistic Labor Party, disillusioned with Chicago, New York and Cincinnati. The politics altogether, created the American inspiration for the new party was ol anarchist movement based in Chicago. course the unity so recently achieved in The remainder renamed the party the Germany. At the same lime, however, the Socialist Labor Party and continued their American centennial gave socialists the quest for the perfect balance between opportunity for rhetoric about the need tor unionism and politics. Many Marxists a second revolution. Moreover, the tact eventually joined it. Later dissidents that the Lassalleans had suffered disas­ helped form the Socialist Party of trous election results in 1874 meant lhat America and. in time, the American Com­ they were willing for the moment to coop­ munist Party, but the Socialist Labor Party erate with Marxists. The platform of the still exists today as a separate entity. new party, chiefly the work of Frederick Finally, the Marxists of the original Work- 188 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

ingmen's Party, chastened by its failure, period, its ethnic composition, and the now concentrated on pure and simple nature of the work it performed, to under­ trade unionism completely free from poli­ stand the politics it produced. The usual tics. They thus created the milieu in which complaint of reviewers of Foner's books the American Federation of Labor was (see Melvyn Dubofsky in Labor Hi\tor\. nurtured. IWinter I985|), that his work lacks such This story is reasonably well known. an analysis, also applies to this book. On Not least there are the previous works of the other hand, politically committed Foner himself, but also, interestingly Marxists might be interested in the evolu­ enough, the quite detailed account by tion of Marxist ideas in the United Stale-.. Selig Pcrlman written as early as 1918 for Those with such interests will find more the second volume of John R. Commons* satisfaction. But neither u\' these History of Labor in the U.S. R.V. approaches is the key to Foner's history. Brucc's 1877, Year of Violence also The author is, in fact, a nostalgic Marxist examines the role of the Workingmen's with a particular fondness for lost causes, Party in the strikes of that year. liven the He is interested in left-wing groups and point about the contribution of Marxists to individuals engaged in a Sisyphean strug­ the early American Federation of Labor gle against enormous odds. If. from the has been made many limes, even by mure perspective of Reagan's America, their conservative labour historians, like Gerald eftorts seem futile, ihey nevertheless N. Grob. But no matter. Foner has traced retain an intrinsic interest for their own in detail the two-year history of the Work­ sake. Il is in this vein that Foner's work ingmen's Party. He gives a blow by blow must be appreciated. account of the Marxist-Lassallean debate. including even the letters to the editor in W.M. Dick the party's English newspaper, the Labor Scarborough College Standard. He explores the party's interest in recruiting women workers and black David J. Hogan. flats and Reform: workers. He uncovers the story of the first black socialist, Peter N. Clarke, which of School and Societx in Chicagi>, course has an intrinsic interest. In fact, for IXX0-19M) (Philadelphia: University'ot" those who like their labour history in the Philadelphia Press 1985). old style, with lots of institutional and personal detail, this must be the definitive THEORIES OF SOCIAL CONTROL are long history of the WPUS. out of fashion. In the history of education. where they briefly obtained popularity, Others may question Foner's they are rejected as brutally simplistic and approach. One wonders, in particular, if deterministic. The correlations between this work is what the Marxist Educational economic and demographic transition, Press of Minneapolis, the publisher of the conservative economic elites, and public book, was looking for. Their other vol­ schooling, have been proven imprecise, if umes in the series, some of which are not faulty. Schools, it is argued, were. based on papers delivered to the midwest and are, complex institutions mediating Marxisi scholars' annual conferences. various forces: economic structures, cul consist of a variety of sociological and tural perceptions, individual ability, state anthropological studies from a Marxist decree and public will. However, in some perspective. So what does one expect in a hands, the rejection of social control has Marxist analysis of "the firsl Marxist meant the rejection of questions pertain­ party in the United States?" Most Marxist ing to class conflict and accommodation scholars would expect some discussion of within a constantly transforming econ­ the structure of American society in the omy. David Hogan has challenged this REVIEWS 189

quiescence and perhaps breathed new life "Limits of Reform" is basically about into educational revisionism. working-class strategies and the role of Class and Reform is a conceptually education, but with unique emphasis. rich analysis of the Chicago reform move­ Through analyzing the determinants of ment, with particular emphasis on enrollment by ethnic groups he rejects two schools, from 1880-1930. While much of competing theories. First, enrollment was the ground Hogan covers is well known — not simply "cultural emhourgeoisment." Hull House, child saving, Dewey and the Ethnic groups both used schools differ­ new education, vocationalism, the Cooley ently over time and place and retained Bill — much else is new. Moreover, his independent churches, associations, and partiality to a Thompsoniun approach to leisure groups. Chicago schools did not class and class formation, as well as a ameliorate cultural heterogeneity. Sec­ general attention to conflict — political, ond, human capital did not operate in a economic, and cultural — casts new light linear fashion. Groups enrolled differ­ on old topics. entially, weighing short- and long-term economic goals as well as cultural con­ The first two chapters deal with the cerns. Even with the rise of eredentialism new economic order and reform, in par­ ticular child-centred reform. Though — not unnoticed by even recent arrivees somewhat thin on evidence, Hogan argues — schooling was not universal. Con­ that in the last third of the nineteenth cen­ straints were internal and external, cul­ tury. Chicago's labour force was recast as tural and economic. un- and semiskilled; that large, imper­ However, school did facilitate class sonal, hierarchical organizations became structuration, the "remaking of the the norm and that control shifted from Chicago working class." The market sys­ "formal to real subordination." He draws tem did define the options, but not simi­ on and augments slightly the literature on larly for all groups at all times. Schools work and skill control. Against this back­ were also an instrument of cultural drop he projects reform as merely tinker­ defence. Catholic schools in particular, ing with substantial economic issues. Not but also neighbourhood enclaves, served a repudiation of the market, child-centred to solidify cultural bonds while at the reform served instead three purposes: it same time fragmenting the Chicago work­ deflected attention away from grossly ing class. Though he provides little evi­ unequal economic structures; linked dence of the rich associational life he social service provision with children, not wants to claim, school, at least, appears to citizens; and legitimized unprecedented have been part of cultural sustenance. The control of children's welfare, socializa­ exigencies of an emerging wage labour tion. and training. He calls this the market, in concert with cultural percep­ uniquely American response to capitalist tions. demanded improving, but unique abuse, the tendencv "for Lockean preoc­ patterns of enrollment. cupations to promote Hobbescan solu­ tions." The vocational story is more familiar. As the labour market increasingly But the more important chapters. 1 demanded disciplined, not skilled work­ think, revolve more closely around the ers, as immigrants flooded the city, as school; "The Limits of Reform," a labour strife reached alarming heights, reworking of his 1978 article in History of and as children continued to leave school Education Quarterly, which analyzes early, business and educational leaders enrollment patterns by class and ethnicity; proposed and implemented "practical" chapter four. "The Triumph ot Voca­ education. And despite the defeat of the tionalism;" and five, "Centralization and Cooley Bill — an attempt to separate Transformation of Public Education." physically vocational students - the 190 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

"market was victorious." Labour was through a consensual haze. Neither sim­ defeated on the general issue of voca- ply instrumentsof social control, nor truly tionalism and over junior high schools and autonomous, Hogan reminds us schools intelligence testing. The business-backed are forums of conflict — between and board ran roughshod over concerns for within classes. Efficiency squared off educational equality. with opportunity: an unequal economic His discussion of educational organi­ system clashed with an ostensibly demo­ zation, co-authored with Marjorie Mur­ cratic school system. The Chicago working phy, documents the suppression of the class especially was buffeted by this con­ Chicago Teachers' Federation by that flict. They stood, throughout this period, same business-backed board. The con­ with one adolescent foot in the schoolyard comitant rise of educational profession­ and the other in the workyard. als, a new middle class, is also examined. Together these groups squeezed the Dan Hawthorne teachers and centralized school control in York University the hands of a small cadre of appointed officials and educational specialists. Naomi R. Lamoreaux. The Great Merger Again, Hogan trumpets the victory of "the Movement in American Business, market." 1X95-1904 (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni­ In short, the victory of the market versity Press 1985). meant the defeat of radicalism in any form and the "calibration" of public education A NhW LOOK at the great merger move­ and private industry. Hogan's interpreta­ ment by Naomi Lamoreaux, an economic tion is similar to earlier revisionist writ­ historian at Brown University, promises to ings on the nineteenth century but he pre­ tell us much about the development of sents some refinements. modern American capitalism and particu­ Classes were reproduced not through larly its competitive structure. Professor social control — though business elites Lamoreaux, a traditional economic histo­ expressed exactly this desire — but rian, rather than a eliometrician. provides through the confluence of economic a readable and accessible text through forces, individual choice, and misguided which one can follow her centrist chal­ reform. As the economy simultaneously lenge to historians on both sides of the demanded fewer skills and placed more ideological road. She is critical of both emphasis on credential ism, ethnic Alfred D. Chandler's benign interpreta­ working-class groups slowly, and each tion of the advantages of vertical integra­ distinctly, moved into classrooms. They tion and Gabriel Kolko's assault on the were motivated by a complex of reasons. corporate use of state power, but is at her And reformers were willing agents of best in describing and modeling the pre­ class reproduction because they neither conditions for consolidation, the major seriously questioned the market nor, if features of the system which emerged, its they did, possessed a language adequate impact on competition, and the response to critique it. Reform, in this case public- of government. schooling, was a forum of class conflict as Alfred D. Chandler's influential ambitious attempts at socialization work. The Visible Hand: The Managerial clashed with working-class lives. Revolution in America (1977), is not Class and Reform will not go unchal­ chiefly a study of the merger movement lenged. Some, for instance, will criticize but in the course of his optimistic por­ the emphasis on conflict, others will pro­ trayal of corporate evolution. Chandler test the submersion of Thompson. It views successful vertical integration as the should, however, point a new path product of economies of speed conferred REVIEWS 191 by fuller corporate control over the control. The pattern she finds is that in the various steps from raw material to market­ context of the depression of the 1890s, in ing of the finished product. Lamoreaux an era of new growth industries which had contends that the managers of the new not yet stabilized market shares, and with consolidations were far less optimistic high fixed costs, the "rate of new invest­ about such advantages than Chandler. ment" was the most significant variable in Their efforts to restrict competition. determining the susceptibility of an indus­ including syndicalist type arrangements try first to price war and then to consolida­ with unions, raw material control, pat­ tion. She goes on to maintain that the mer­ ents, tariffs, and the like, testify to the gers of this period had an important effect managers' lack of faith in the efficiencies on the rules of future competition. Some of vertical integration. of the mergers persisted and the new Yet she also criticizes Koike's The dominant firms in each of these industries Triumph of Conservatism (1963) for its not only had a greater market share, the insistence on big business influence in traditional basis for oligopoly leadership, determining government policy. Charac­ but also learned to discipline their rivals teristically, Lamoreaux aims her fire at through revived price competition when conservative critics of government inter­ deemed necessary. Thus the next, though vention. Whether the middle of the road lesser, economic crisis in 1907 saw no proves a safe place for scholars to walk great outbreak of price competition. The depends on the intellectual traffic. In this enduring legacy of the merger movement area Lamoreaux is an exposed pedestrian was then, for Lamoreaux, its effect on the when she neglects her skills as an eco­ competitive rules. nomic historian and makes a brief foray While by and large her argument into the thoroughfare of legal history. Her seems clearly reasoned it is not based on sketchy treatment of the evolution of the kind of close, well documented study American antitrust law is not convincing. utilizing manuscript sources, which a tra­ Suffice it to say that she enunciates no ditional historian would prefer. Professor clear theory of the law, or ot the judiciary Lamoreaux has raised some interesting and its relation to society Nor does she issues but she fails to challenge seriously adequately document, beyond a scrutiny Kolko or Chandler, not only because her of published opinions, the judicial reason­ research efforts have fallen short of their ing inlorming these decisions. Her con­ standards, but also because her own intel­ clusion on this aspect is that "U.S. anti­ lectual position lacks the precision of their trust policy was for all practical purposes clearly defined ideological premises. formulated by judges" and Kolko for one does not give due weight to the judges' "distrust of concentrated economic- Stephen Scheinbcrg power." This reviewer will await not only Concordia University more thoroughly researched studies of the judiciary but also a more trenchant Pete Daniel, Breaking the Land: The theoretical perspective. Transformation of Cotton, Tobacco, and Rice Cultures Since fXXO (Urbana and Unlike many contemporary students Chicago: University of Illinois Press of consolidation. Lamoreaux emphasizes 1985). market control as a major objective ot the merger movement. Studying 93 of the THF. DLMISE OF the southern plantation consolidations which took place between system comprises one of the central chap­ 1895 and 1904, she finds 72 o\' them ters in the social, economic, and political resulted in control of at least 40 per cent history of twentieth-century America. As of the market and 42 in at least 70 per cent late as the 1930s, most southerners, white 192 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL and black, lived on the land and cultivated however, he finds the harbingers of that staple crops in a manner that appeared lit­ transformation in the impact of emancipa­ tle changed since the Civil War or, in tion and Reconstruction, and in earlier some respects, since the early nineteenth federal incursions to fend off the effects of century. Then, within two turbulent dec­ foreign competition and natural disaster. ades of depression and war mobilization. The end of slavery ushered in new rela­ the old order seemed to unravel. Tenants tions on the land that, in varying degrees. and sharecroppers left the soil, replaced shaped the reconstitution of staple crop by wage labourers and heavy machinery. production. Perhaps most startling was The cotton plant migrated westward, the rapid decline of the old rice areas replaced by soybeans, peanuts, poultry, along the coast of South Carolina and hogs, and cattle. Population flowed in Georgia — where some of the greatest considerable proportions from country to planter fortunes and the densest concen­ city and from agriculture to industry. So trations of slaves were to be found - and rapid was the transition that some histo­ the emergence of prairie rice farming in rians speak of the veritable "collapse" of Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas owing to the plantation economy, a collapse that northern land speculation and midwestern ultimately helped bring down segregation knowhow. It was here that the South and the "solid" Democratic- South as came most quickK and most closely to well. approximating the "classically" capitalist road of Hnglish agriculture: large land­ Yet, however compelling, the notion owners, some absentees, substantial ten­ of "collapse" may be analytically narrow ants owning expensive machinery; and and misleading: it suggests that the Civil seasonal wage labour. In the cotton and War was limited in consequence; it tobacco areas, slavery gave way to the reflects almost exclusive attention to the grinding forms of tenancy and sharecrop- cotton areas; and it obscures the wider ping, though to little technical innovation. processes of which the "collapse" was a Both cultures remained heavily labour part. This is why Pete Daniel's Breaking intensive. Even so, the picture hardly was the hind assumes such importance. Hor a static one, as crop cultivation moved into while many aspects of the story have new locales (cotton into the while- already been told. Daniel puts them dominated hill country and westward into together in the most ambitious, mean­ Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahama; tobacco ingful, and accessible way to date. He into South Carolina. Georgia, and Florida begins in the 1880s and takes us into the from Virginia and North Carolina) and 1970s. He studies tobacco and rice along labourers struggled with landowners over with the cotton sector, and he links the the terms ol the new arrangements. reorganization of southern agriculture to the larger reorganization of the American Just as the prairie rice economy economy. In so doing, he not only adds to anticipated farreaching changes in the our knowledge and raises a great many organization of agricultural production, interesting questions, he also points so too did it anticipate farreaching towards a reconceptualization of the changes in the relations between southern South's transition to capitalism. agriculture and the nation-slate, hor rice Like other scholars before him, Daniel growers moved to rationalize their indus­ sees the massive federal interventions of try and use the powers of the government the 1930s — most notably the infusion of — in the latter instance by means of a capital by means of the Agricultural tariff — well before cotton and tobacco Adjustment Act (AAA) — as a pivotal planters did. Nonetheless, the bureau­ moment in the transformation of the plan­ cratic arms of the state made their pres­ tation cultures. Unlike many scholars, ence felt throughout the South by the first REVIEWS 193 decades of the twentieth century, attempt­ course of change within the region was ing 10 eradicate the boll weevil, break up intricately tied to the region's changing the American Tobacco Trust, and bring status in the national political economy. relief to victims of flood and drought -- The New Deal interventions, as Daniel all in ways that set the stage for the New insists, were not merely a response to Deal policies of the 1930s. rural poverty and economic crisis; they Those policies reshaped the political must, as well, be understood in reference economy of the South and the nation, but to the wider economic and political reor­ their impact on the South was by no ganizations ushered in during the Progres­ means uniform. Least affected were the sive era. prairie rice areas, where the previous We need to know more than Daniel advances had been most significant. In the tells us about the role of tenants, croppers, tobacco and, especially, the cotton areas, and small producers generally in the trans­ however, the consequences were striking formation of the southern countryside, for and often wrenching, amounting in they are portrayed chiefly as victims. We Daniel' s view to a southern enclosure also need to know more about the shifting movement, as the AAA-inspired acreage relations between regional and national reductions and subsidies, together with politics, for the travails of cotton and supplemental federal relief, led to whole­ tobacco agriculture in the late nineteenth sale evictions of tenants and croppers, to and early twentieth centuries were as increasing reliance on wage labour, and, much a product of the South's limited ultimately, to mechanization and diversi­ influence over national policy as they fication. Daniel describes skillfully the were of a deeply rooted state rights men­ workings ot federal programmes in each tality that looked with suspicion upon the of the AAA's relevant crop sections, dem­ federal government. So it was that the onstrating how [he balance of social and accession of the Democratic Party in the political forces determined the particular 1430s, in which the South constituted a outcomes: hedging the social dislocations significant bloc, represented an event of in the case of tobacco; hastening them in great import. Pete Daniel's Breaking the the case of cotton. liven more powerfully. Land will provide much of the direction he discusses the human impact of the and insight for these studies. great changes on the land and argues that the more extended road to mechanization in tobacco culture made for a less disrup­ Steven Hahn tive transition than was true in cotton. University ol California San Diego Although Daniel emphasizes the diverse experiences of the southern coun­ Peter Carlson. Roughneck: The Life and tryside, he also points to the increasing Times <>} Big Bill llavwood (New York: economic integration of the region as a Norton 1983). whole — a matter that deserves far more attention from historians than it has NO LABOUR ORGANIZATION has received. It was cotton sharecroppers, tor prompted as much curiosity and romance example, who supplied most of the sea­ as the Industrial Workers of the World; of sonal wage labour for rice planters. In a its notables, none has attracted more larger sense. Daniel suggests that the interest than Bill Haywood. Billing him­ development of capitalist agriculture in self as a "two-gun man from the West" the South was a protracted, fitful, and while addressing workers, "Big Bill" uneven process, where the progress of one would then reach into his coat to produce sector commonly fed off the back­ his twin weapons in the class war — a wardness of another, and where the Socialist Party card and the red card of the 194 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

IWW. His dramatic gestures and speeches prises in Roughneck. "Big Bill." it turns are still imitated by university lecturers out, was in fact less than six feet tall (it's intent on giving jaded students an not the size of the man in the fight. . .), appreciation for the culture and vitality of and the blindness of his right eye was the early labour movement, while his caused by a childhood accident, not by flight to Russia in 1921, which left com­ struggles against the bosses. Contrary to rades to make good his bail bond, is still popular belief, Haywood did not brandish debated by the left. Peter Carlson has his glass eye as evidence of callous bosses thoroughly mined newspapers, private •— he refused to wear one. The years papers, and the autobiographies of Haywood spent in Russia suffer from a Haywood, Ralph Chaplin, and Elizabeth lack of material, but Carlson does provide Gurley Flynn to provide a highly readable a fascinating vignette of the syndicalist's account of the man. role as a manager in the workers' repub­ The early years are perhaps the most lic. interesting, for they document the trans­ The author is careful to indicate that formation of a man as "American as Mark the book is not a scholarly treatment, and Twain" into a union organizer and radi­ he is quite correct. While this eliminates cal. In detailing Haywood's life as a much of the book's usefulness for this worker, Carlson underlines the violence readership, it does not take away from its and brutality of capitalism — bosses who interest, though the absence of footnotes would whip a boy of twelve for "shiftless- is irksome. Some of the quotes are illus­ ness," lynchings of blacks, agoni/ing trative and juicy, but the notes on sources work in the mines, an accident which are not very helpful in tracking them nearly cost Haywood a hand. But brutal down. Apart from some quick sketches to conditions alone do not create radicals. provide context, there is little analysis of and Carlson is careful to outline some of the IWW and the climate in which it oper­ the other factors that turned one man into ated. What analysis there is has largely such a fierce opponent of capitalism. The been cribbed from the standard sources, murder of the Haymarket anarchists especially Mclvyn Dubotsky's We Shall enraged and enlightened Haywood, as it Be All and Philip Toner's volume on the did so many other activists, while the IWW in his History of the Labor Move­ mutual aid of the hard rock miners pointed ment in the United State* series. Too towards a different way to run society. much is made of western regionalism, and Finally, the naked collusion of the state. there is a tendency to imply that "IWWism capital, and the American Federation of is Americanism." While the Wobbliesdid Labor made it clear to him that revolution adopt a similar line, it was merely an was the only way to free the unskilled organizing trick, not an explanation or worker. If Carlson presents too tidy a pic­ analysis. It was a variant of their "if ture of Haywood's conversion, it may be Christ were around, he'd carry a red card" due to his forced reliance on Haywood's — useful as rhetoric, but nothing else. autobiography. Radicals are made, not Both characterizations muddy any exami­ born, and on reflecting upon the process, nation of a union that was headed by no doubt it is easier to remember the big, atheists opposed to private property. inspiring events that accelerated the evolu­ tion. In any event, Haywood's view of the Carlson's notes on the authenticity of turning points of his life is as compelling Haywood's autobiography similarly lack as any biographer's speculation. rigour. In his autobiography, Ralph Chap­ lin suggested Haywood's book was While the outline of Haywood's story largely ghost-written by Communist is known to most of the readers of editors, while Dubofsky is in substantial Labourite Travail, there are a few sur­ agreement. Carlson disagrees strongly, REVIEWS 195 but offers no new evidence. Forced to rely as either anti-religious or essentially non- on the work for a goodly amount of the religious. In contrast. Winters argues that detail and richness of his own. Carlson's while the IWW detested middle-class reli­ sland needs more support than an asser­ gion in this era, the union seemed gener­ tion that the book has Haywood's "tone of ally "at home with religion — or at least voice." The issue is complicated by the its own radical, prophetic version of reli­ fact that neither Soviet officials nor the gion." With the "literature and lore" of book's publishers have ever commented the Wobblies as evidence. Winters sets on its origin or that it was published dur­ out to build his ease. ing the debate on "Americanization" In the five chapters comprising the within the CPUSA. The mystery con­ main text. Winters examines IWW religion tinues. in varied contexts. First, he offers infor­ Despite these flaws. Carlson has mation on the importance of religion for crafted an interesting biography. While- Hugene Debs and Father Hagerty. Sec­ many social and socialist historians attack ond, he considers "Wobbly hymnody," oi the genre, biographies are popular, and it the religious impulse informing many is probably better that the world outside IWW songs. Next he recounts the debate the history profession read biographies of over the "religious question" in the IWW revolutionaries and unionists than lauda­ press. Winters follows with an assessment tory ones of prime ministers, kings, and of the religious motifs in the poetry of the presidents. Roughneck is entertaining and IWW and finally, he provides a revisionist well-written; it is a good night-table book interpretation of the I WW's impact among tor labour historians. Finnish iron ore miners from Minnesota's Mesabi Range, arguing that the IWW's sectarian spirit appealed to Finns and Mark I.eier helped to bridge the division between Red Simon Fraser University Finns, church Finns, and temperance Finns. Donald 11. Winters. Jr.. The Soul of the Wobbtii>\: The I.W.W.. Religion, tint! Historians may find their curiosity American Culture in the Progressive Era. piqued by this argument, but they will not 1905-1917 (Westport. CT: Greenwood find it convincing, since Winters has 1985). neither the primary evidence nor the theoretical foundation to support his SINCE THE 1960S historians have been assertions. The entire book rests upon an increasingly interested in the role of reli­ embarrassingly thin research and theoreti­ gion in working-class culture and con­ cal base and historians will discover it sciousness. Little wonder, then, that unpersuasive and unilluminating — not to someone steps forward with a study of mention poorly written and badly religion and the Industrial Workers of the organized. Winters broaches a topic- World. Specifically, in a brief 135-page worthy of study and helps to give IWW text, complemented by an appropriately poets Ralph Chaplin, Arturo Giovannitti. coloured red cover. Donald Winters pro­ Charles Ashleigh. and Covington Hall poses to "examine the relationship their proper place in history, but his work between the IWW and American religion; contains notable flaws. or more specifically between the IWW and From the start the book suffers from American Protestantism" from 1905 to deficiency of purpose and direction. In the 1917. He maintains that contemporaries first six pages Winters variously describes and historians have misunderstood and his work as an examination of the relation­ underestimated religious motives in the ship between the IWW and "religion," the IWW, and have dismissed the organization IWW and "American Protestantism." the 196 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

IWW and "radical" American religious gious impulse in Wobbly hymnody when thought, and the IWW and "not so radi­ Winters neglects systematic collection cal" American religious thought. In addi­ and analysis of songs, avoids the histori­ tion, Winters claims to assess "the [WW's cal literature on Protestant hymnody. impact on American society and culture" shuns research on religion and labour and "the reciprocal impact of American songs, and makes no reference to Paul culture — particularly American religion Schcip's pamphlet on the history of "Hold at the beginning of the twentieth century the Fort." Likewise, even the most sym­ — upon the IWW." Few readers will pathetic reader must admit that Winters' escape without being confused about the account of the "religious question" falls particular topic Winters really plans to short. Winters has not adequately address. Moreover, in the remainder of researched letters to the editors in the the introduction Winters does nothing to IWW press and has an imperceptible alleviate the confusion. He posits what he knowledge of recent scholarship on believes is a workable definition of reli­ antebellum religion by labour, feminist, gion in regard to the IWW: political, and intellectual historians. including Herbert Gutman. liven in his u system ot beliefs and symbols which seeks to examination of "poetics" Winters did not develop in the working class a sense of solidar­ scour the Wobbly press for evidence and ity and class consciousness. and a motivation to he somehow managed to overlook entirely engage in a class struggle against the evil force of capitalism toward the end of creating a new Ralph Chaplin's When the Leaves Come order, a "commonwealth of toil." Out (1917). Finally, as if either he or the editor wanted to frustrate readers com­ A more unworkable definition of religion pletely, Winters chastises Robert Wiebe would be difficult to imagine. [Does Win­ for calling the IWW the "international" ters consider German free thinkers, Italian workers of the world, only to refer to anarchists. Yiddish socialists, and Ser­ them by the same name in a citation of bian communists in the same "religious" Philip Foncr's study of the organization. category merely because they advocated In sum. in his attempt to find the "soul" class solidarity? More importantly, docs of the IWW, Winters fails to elevate our he believe that more than a handful of understanding ol that body ! white male IWW members felt motivated by the Wobbly religion he defines? Win­ ters would do well to redefine his topic Clark Halker and reconceive the notion of IWW religion Aibion College should he hope to gain a wide audience. Winters" problematic definition and Allan Kent Powell, The Next Time We conception may well stem from an alarm­ Strike; Labor in the Utah Coal Fields. ingly poor grounding in primary and sec­ iVOO-IVJJ (Logan, Utah: Utah State Uni­ ondary sources. Readers who proceed versity Press 19851. beyond his introduction will immediately discover Winters has not done careful THIS IS A straightforward and well- homework. His shallow treatment of written account of the arduous process Eugene Debs reveals apparently lacka­ through which the United Mine Workers daisical research habits, since Winters of America (UMWA) came to represent makes no mention of the essential and vol­ workers in Utah's coalfields. It is styled uminous literature on the history of very much like the older labour history of socialism. Discussing Debs without men­ the Commons school, and is almost purely tioning Salvatore's masterful study must narrative. The focus stays trained on Utah be judged foolhardy. In a similar vein, and on Utah's relations with district and readers cannot be convinced of the reli­ international union officials. That limited REVIEWS 197

focus becomes bolh a strength and a role played by the UMWA international weakness of the book. leadership in shaping, and at times ignor­ Powell begins his study with a brief ing, Utah's coalfield organizing. His review of trade unionism and the coal introductory assessment suggests that the industry in Utah history. The context of UMWA played an extremely positive role Mormon anti-unionism is effectively in adopting a "conservative rather than developed but the section on coal signals a revolutionary course" and in securing continuing weakness in the book. It "better conditions." promoting "class stresses the growth of various mines and consciousness," resisting wage cuts, and fields but has little to say about the labour reducing "the animosity and antagonisms process in mining coal. Later disputes among the ethnic groups in the coal over coal companies cheating on weighing camps." He also emphasizes, much as or over charges that immigrant workers David Saposs did long ago and as James used dangerous techniques to get out more Barrett has recently, that unions served coal would have been clearer had readers workers as a "school for learning demo­ known more about how miners worked cratic practices," But in a trenchant con­ and were paid. However, the chapters on cluding statement, Powell stresses work­ the mine disasters at Winter Quarters in ers' self-activity far more than the union 1900 and Castle Gate in 1924 are evoca­ structure; "In retrospect, Utah miners tive of life underground and of mining more often took the initiative in dealing community life and are among the best with their employers to establish the sections of the book. United Mine Workers of America than did UMWA spokesmen." The material on strikes and organizing drives in Utah finds the UMWA playing a In tracing the relationship of the inter­ surprisingly episodic role. Alter losing a national to organizing efforts in Utah. large 1903-4 strike in the Utah fields, the Powell notes that Utah was a state with a UMWA suffered through a twelve-year history of failing to repay the efforts of "intermission" in Utah. During that organizers paid by the UMWA and that, at period, the Western Federation of Miners least by 1919, the John L. Lewis leader­ and the Industrial Workers of the World ship of the international was reluctant to played major organizing roles along with expend more funds and energy there. He Greek ethnic societies. The UMWA further observes that the interests of the achieved a measure of success in Utah union in Utah did not always fit in well during World War I, thanks in part to with the "overall strategy" of the UMWA. favourable decisions from the Federal This failure of coordination did not Labor Mediation and Conciliation Board. always result from lack of militancy or But after defeats in 1919 the "loyal pa­ attention on the part of the internationals triotic and conservative" L'MWA saw its leadership. In 1919, for example. Powell organizing gains rolled back. The Utah argues that the rather weak Utah locals open-shop drive of the 1920s, which fea­ would have benefited from continued tured passage of a state "right-to-work" supervision of labour relations by the I that is, anti-closed shop) law further Mediation and Conciliation Board, but the encouraged the decertification of local L'MWA was as a whole committed to chal­ unions. When organizing efforts spon­ lenging the continuation of board jurisdic­ sored by the UMWA did succeed in and tion and of other wartime-imposed meas­ after 1933 they were in large part ures limiting the right to strike. Powell responses to organizing campaigns by the does find the UMWA generally lacking in Communist-led National Miners' Union its support for ethnic organizers vic­ (NMU>. timized by nativism and local opposition to trade unionism. Powell seldom explicitly evaluates the 198 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

The Next Time We Strike reminds us relatively conservative unions in surviving that even (or perhaps, especially) in the the 1920s and contributing to the labour isolated mining towns of the West, immi­ upsurges of the 1930s and who treat grant labour was of vital importance. Samuel Gompcrs with great respect, laud­ Powell shows the momentum for one ing him as a realist in touch with organizing drive after another growing working-class opinion. from solidarity among Finns, Japanese, Coming at a time when survival of Italians, and Slavic miners. The hesitancy existing unions seems a major achieve­ of U.S.-born miners to join unions before ment — when commentators on contem­ 1933 was the Achilles heel of the Utah porary labour laud strikes which settle tor labour movement in coal. large concessions as partial "victories" Powell's work is little influenced by insofar as the union was not completely the trends in labour and social history over broken — such interpretations have an the last two decades. Its sources are appeal. But we should not miss the extent mainly area newspapers, though some to which the achievements of "realistic" inventive use is made of police infor­ and moderate unions were enhanced by mants' reports and oral interviews, includ­ the presence of radical alternatives. The ing some with mine guards. There is little 1933 acceptance of the UMWA in Utah, description of ethnic working-class com­ partly as an alternative to the more radical munity structure, family patterns, and lei­ NMU, is an excellent case in point. If we sure activities, although some appended applaud, wilh Powell, the record of the songs and excellent photographs are UMWA in winning concrete gains for Utah suggestive on these scores. There are few miners over the last half-century, we must foreign language sources, possibly also note that the union has as yet found because few have survived. no successful moderate strategy to stop the erosion of union strength in the west­ Little acquaintance with the growing ern coalfields and the proliferation of literature on labour and communism is non-union mines there. shown in the sections on the NMU, although Powell's account of that union is quite even-handed. Nor do larger ques­ Dave Roediger tions frame the description of the Indus­ University of Missouri trial Workers of the World, the discussion of which relies heavily on the local press Joe William Trotter. Jr.. Black Mil­ and therefore credits the image ot the vio­ waukee: The Making of an Industrial Pro­ lent Wobbly iwerly much. The book lacks letariat, 1915-1945 (Champaign. IL: Uni­ a bibliography but it does not appear from versity of Illinois Press 1985). the notes that the IWW archives or the 1WW press were consulted as sources. ON THE SURFACE, Milwaukee is an If The Next Time We Strike fits into unlikely subject for a study of the emerg­ any trend in labour history writing, it is ing black urban working class during the surely one leaning towards an apprecia­ early twentieth century. The tiny black tion of the achievements of moderate community there, which grew from .02 labour leaders and trade unions and of per cent to only 1.2 per cent of the total workers persistently nurturing unions population between 1910 and 1930. never while making modest demands. Powell, really achieved ghetto status. And that is. who comes from a mining family, clearly after all, what most historians of admires the UMWA for being there over twentieth-century Afro-America have the years and for its eventual quiet studied — the development of the ghetto. triumph. In this he resembles recent writ­ Milwaukee's blacks were also much less ers who have praised the achievements of concentrated than those in almost any REVIEWS 199

other large industrial city. Besides, Mil­ ing the 1930s both accentuated black waukee's socialist city administration workers' identification with the Afro- might reasonably be expected to have a far American bourgeoisie and restricted their better record on civil rights and race rela­ solidarity with white workers. tions than the political machines of cities By the 1940s several factors con­ like Chicago or New York. So, at the out­ verged to consolidate the position of Mil­ set, one is tempted to speculate that Joe waukee's black proletariat. Conversion to William Trotter has wasted a lot of time defence work, together with some federal and energy on a community which was action against employment discrimina­ really not very important in the broader tion, brought an increasingly larger pro­ scheme of things (though obviously portion of the population into more stable important to black people living in Mil­ and relatively better paid employment. waukee). The simultaneous emergence of mass- In fact, this book teaches us a lot, and based interracial CIO unions offered cru­ its accomplishments testify to Trotter's cial vehicles for self-expression and inter­ fresh approach and careful research. What racial working-class struggle. Union is new about Black Milwaukee is that its activists recruited blacks, publicly author seriously considers the phenome­ denounced racism, and cooperated with non of class and the problem of class rela­ civil rights groups and middle-class social tions as important influences on the devel­ service agencies in campaigns against dis­ opment of urban blacks. Most other crimination in housing and employment. authors dealing with urban Afro-America The CIO also spawned its own civil rights have not. They have certainly described organization, the Milwaukee Interracial occupational structures and observed that Labor Relations Committee, which was most black residents were poor. On the chaired by a black tannery worker but also other end of the social spectrum, they included many white labour activists. have often described the emergence of a Negro elite as a key to understanding the What difference did it make that this growth of the institutional ghetto. What process of black proletarianization occurred they have often failed to do is consider in a city governed by socialists? Trot­ these urban dwellers as industrial work­ ter's conclusion seems to be, not much. ers, influenced as much by that status as Yet his evidence suggests a mixed picture. by their status as black people living in a Mayor Daniel Hoan effectively quashed white society. Trotter places his emphasis most efforts to import black strikebreak­ squarely on the juncture between race and ers. the single most important source of class, and asks how the experience of conflict among black and white workers these workers was different as a result of in so many other cities. This step certainty their race. reduced the potential for physical violence between the races, but Hoan's actions Trotter demonstrates the tenuous qual­ owed more to his close relationship with ity of black proletarianization right up to the segregated Federated Trades Council World War II. He also analyzes the impli­ than to his concern for black workers. cations of black workers' weak economic Likewise, Hoan served on the NAACP position for inlerclass relations within board and acted to stem the growth of the their own community and lor their rela­ Ku Klux Klan in the city. But again his tions with white workers in the city at motivation was practical: he was protect­ large. Persistent discrimination in labour ing his hold on a solid black constituency. and housing markets (by craft unions and Chicago's reactionary and corrupt Repub­ white workers as well as by industrial lican boss, "Big Bill" Thompson, paid at employers and real estate firms) and least as much attention to blacks as the extremely high unemployment levels dur­ socialist Hoan and apparently for the same 200 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

reason — votes. Still, in Chicago blacks influence of competing religious and were voting for a representative of the political philosophies or, for that matter, "party of Lincoln." In Milwaukee, they the self-interest of competing elites. abandoned the Republicans for a self- The value of any case study hinges at described working-class party, turning in least in part on what it can tell us about the large pluralities for the socialists. This general problem it seeks to explain. Trot­ adherence to the socialist standard, espe­ ter's use of the proletarianization concept cially in the face of the party's dismal sets his study within a broader Marxist record on the race issue during the early theoretical context common to much of twentieth century, makes the political the more recent work in the field of North behaviour of Milwaukee's blacks all the American labour history. This context more striking. Their ability to look past allows Trotter to conclude with a compa­ the national party's neglect of civil rights rative chapter which enhances the book's and even Mayor Hoan's own insensitivity value to historians of the working class. (telling a "darky" story before a large, Most of this chapter is devoted to com­ interracial socialist audience, tor exam­ parisons of the Milwaukee evidence with ple) suggests a strong class awareness and that from studies of other black communi­ a high level of political sophistication. ties in the northern and southern United Such behaviour seems to have clear impli­ States. Trotter is correct that the experi­ cations for Trotter's theme, but the book ence of proletarianization provides a fer­ contains no substantive discussion of the tile ground for the sort of comparative socialist vole in the black community. working-class social history that is still so rare. His own effort, however, is rather Milwaukee may not have been a much superficial, especially with regard to the better place to be an Afro-American dur­ "new immigrants" of the early twentieth ing the early twentieth century than most century. A rigorous comparison of the other northern industrial cities. But the black migrants with the new immigrants administration's policies sometimes would be particularly significant, not only helped blacks along with the rest of the because of the large number of people labouring population. The city's over­ involved but also because of what appear whelming working-class black commu­ to be so many similarities in the demo­ nity took note and voted accordingly. graphic characteristics and even the migra­ Getting some minimal representation tion and work experiences of the two through the Socialist Party was one thing. groups. Trotter's conclusion that pro­ Getting one's own black representative letarianization was a step down for most into the city council or state house was white workers certainly does not apply to quite another. Although this was a high many of the Slavic peasants and agricul­ priority throughout the period, black tural labourers who abandoned the farm political activists repeatedly failed to for factory, mine, or mill in these same achieve it. In part this was due to the small years. Whatever the social and economic number of voters involved, but intraracial difficulties faced by these immigrants conflict among competing factions also (some of them comparable to those faced played a role. One of Trotter's significant by blacks), industrial work represented a findings is a high degree of social and significant improvement in their living political friction within black Milwaukee standards. — between old-line, long-settled integra- tionists and newer, more nationalistic The maturation of a self-conscious. community-builders; between socialists organized, black working class was cru­ and Republicans; between Garveyites and cial to the development of the labour NAACP activists. Racial solidarity was not movement in the United States. But this always strong enough to obliterate the class also shaped the history of the black REVIEWS 201

community itself, As Trotter concludes, ability to ride technical innovation might "... the emergence of Milwaukee's black be crucially affected by the imagination, industrial proletariat thrust class, along courage, understanding and organiza­ with race and ghetto formation, to the cen­ tional ability displayed by the craftsmen ter of the Afro-American urban experi­ themselves. In particular, how they ence." (238) related to neighbouring or adjacent work­ men within the division of labour emerges James R. Barrett as an under-examined problem, although University of Illinois it was crucially important." (12) In the six Urbana-Champaign excellent essays that compose this book, the old but still relevant debate about the Royden Harrison and Jonathan Zeitlin, character (and indeed the existence) of the eds.. Divisions of Labour: Skilled Work- "aristocracy of labour" informs much of ers and Technological Change in the analyses of workers' relations with Nineteenth Century Britain (Brighton: other groups of workers as well as with Harvester Press 1985). employers and the stale. David Blankenhorn's essay on LABOUR HISTORIANS are increasingly cabinetmakers makes the point that is skeptical about the simple equation of the made about most groups identified as introduction of machinery with the labour aristocrats throughout the book: "deskilling" of craft workers. As Craig while their wages at certain periods were Littler and other sociologists of work have over the mark which Hobsbawm sets as indicated, the notion of "skill" is socially the minimum qualification for aristocrat created, and no obvious objective criteria status, their position was always precari­ link certain occupations with the ous. Their organization was never able to prestige-cum-remuneration which are protect the entire trade and economic ascribed to these occupations. Indeed, changes — in this case, both technologi­ even conventional labour economics has cal change and the depression of 1873 — long supplied empirical evidence, its eventually undermined their wages and mythological universe of perfect competi­ their organization. And cabinetmakers, tion notwithstanding, that certain groups like other groups of skilled workers, were of workers at certain times in certain divided over tactics for dealing with countries will be more or less advantaged change. One group, clinging to the view or disadvantaged not because of their that cabinetmaking was the prerogative of inherent skills but because of complex a small talented group, denounced the market forces. firms that used new machinery and snubbed their workers. Another group Divisions of Labour traces the forces recognized that the preservation of wage that affected selected groups of workers in rates and working conditions for cabinet­ Britain throughout the nineteenth century makers in the face of the new economic and determined to what extent society — realities required the support of the work­ particularly in the form of employers — ers hired to do the drudge jobs in furniture would treat their work as "skilled" at manufactories. These disagreements led various periods. But while economic to the second group forming a separate forces are considered, the authors gener­ union in the 1870s which largely accepted ally share the view expressed in the book's the principles of the new industrial union­ introduction by Royden Harrison that ism. Unsurprisingly, the better off workers' strategies for coping with such cabinetmakers operating in fancy areas of forces — including technical change, and cities, proved the major hold-outs to the domestic and international market pres­ new unionism and watched with disdain sures — were equally important: "The 202 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

as (he Alliance Cabinet-Makers' Associa­ sivist strategy and demonstrated that new tion grew to become the major organiza­ machinery need not always undermine a tion of furniture workers. craft union's strength was the com­ Blankenhorn claims the elitist group positors, who are compared by Jonathan in the old Friendly Society of Operative Zeitlin to the less fortunate engineers. Cabinet-Makers (FSOCM) "entered the Zeitlin, unlike Blankenhorn, is more con­ 1890s as an overshadowed enclave of craft cerned with unions' successes in enforc­ tradition increasingly out of harmony with ing their wage scales and negotiating a changing industry." (43) But his conclu­ favourable working conditions than with sion is a bit misleading since it follows mere success in gaining members. Noting mainly from an analysis of the relative that new technologies in the 1890s growth in the late 1880s of the two con­ reduced the "real skills" component of tending unions. His own evidence indi­ the compositors' job close to that of a cates that the FSOCM members every­ typist, Zeitlin observes that union mili­ where earned more than their alliance tancy in an industry whose employers counterparts and that "the Alliance, feared bankruptcy in the event of a strike unlike the FSOCM was too weak to led to happy results for the workers in enforce branch-wide standards." (40) question. The compositors, like the elitist Indeed, it appears that the snobbishness of group among the cabinetmakers, sought the FSOCM did not endanger the live­ to exclude rather than to organize those lihood of its members; it merely prevented whom employers used to "dilute" the the organization of workers in the more craft — particularly women. Militancy capital-intensive plants, Those who thus bore several faces: a progressive face crafted fine furniture for the rich in exclu­ in the battle for worker control of the pro­ sive firms appear to have continued to do duction process but a reactionary face in so. That they became a smaller proportion the insistence on such traditional craft of the furniture-making work force as new practices as exclusion of women where firms produced products for a wider mar­ this proved practicable. The engineers ket is undeniable but hardly justifies the proved less militant than the compositors. view that their strategy for survival, while while their employers, concerned about reactionary, was unworkable. international markets, demonstrated the cohesion and aggressiveness that the Indeed, a second essay by Mark newspaper owners lacked. A combination Hirsch dealing with sailmakers suggests of market forces and their own divisions that one should not overstate the extent to weakened the engineers' ability to fight which workers who clung to a policy of capital at a time when new machinery exclusion in the face of technological threatened their autonomy and their change did so because of a blind wages. allegiance to their craft traditions. "Vic­ tims of obsolescence," he notes, "they Standing midway between the com­ made a choice to bar non-legal men for positors and the engineers were the ship­ economic reasons: an all-grades policy in builders, studied by Keith McClelland the 1890s would have been self- and Alastair Re id. These workers, defeating." (100) In any case, these threatened by new technologies, reacted labour aristocrats in decline were not neither with an exclusivist strategy nor without sympathy for the labouring one of simply throwing in their lot with classes as a whole. They favoured inde­ the increased number of workers labeled pendent labour representation and saw no semiskilled who were suddenly in their contradiction between a defence of craft midst. Instead they organized these work­ privilege and labour political unity. ers into their own unions but negotiated One group which followed the exclu- contracts that maintained clear distinc- REVIEWS 203 tions in salaries and working conditions tion in the industry in the 1870s. The between the supposedly skilled and the union's militancy in Scotland had supposedly semiskilled. Such a strategy improved the position of Scottish bakery raises a number of questions, unanswered workers relative to their London fellows — and perhaps in terms of available docu­ for many years, but eventually the union ments unanswerable — in the article succumbed to an employer onslaught. regarding the attitudes of the semiskilled Clearly the baking of bread, unlike the group to a union strategy apparently dic­ publication of a newspaper, did not tated by the craft workers. Once again it require extensive capital and the craft would appear that deft strategy allowed a workers' proud defence of the integrity of threatened craft to retain, at least in part, their trade counted little in battles with its relatively privileged position in the employers. workplace — though as these authors On the whole, then, these essays pro­ stress, the economics of shipbuilding did vide a suggestive sampling of the complex not allow even skilled shipbuilders to relations between "objective" market secure a position within the labour aristoc­ forces and subjective workers' strategies racy, though Hobsbawm places them in in determining the position of various this rank. groups of workers during periods of eco­ The divisions among shipbuilding nomic change. Richard Whipp's piece workers in terms of remuneration and deserves a special mention because, working conditions pale against those unlike several otherwise excellent articles, among pottery workers. Richard Whipp's it attempts to dig out the attitudes of those essay on the Staffordshire potters, perhaps workers who were deemed unskilled best among the essays in this book, dem­ rather than to deal with these workers only onstrates the extent to which insecurity insofar as they fit in with the strategics of marks the position of many workers who the recognized craft groups. superficially appear at a given moment to be labour aristocrats. Equally it demon­ Alvin Finkel strates on a micro-level the complex issues Athabasca University that create oceans of difference among the groups that compose the "working class." H. Gustav Klaus, The Literature of In particular, it tackles the reasons for the Labour: Two Hundred Years of Working- inferior position of women workers in the Class Writing (New York: St. Martin's labour force both before and after the 1985). introduction of machinery. Beginning as the unpaid assistants of fathers and hus­ DESPITE THE GROWING interest in bands in the seventeenth century, women working-class culture, surprisingly little potters later became the sweated sub­ has been written in English about the liter­ contractors of male potters, the slaves of ature of labour. Apart from some Ameri­ slaves, as Sylvia Pankhurst observed. An can and British studies of the proletarian extreme division of tasks within the indus­ aesthetic of the 1930s, neither historians try, as well as the sexual division of nor literary critics have made any con­ labour, insured that pottery workers were certed effort to explore this alternative never united and only rarely unionized. genre. Now, in this ambitious, if slim, Unity alone proved insufficient for book, the German literary historian, Gus­ workers where market forces were wholly tav Klaus, has tried to lift the subject out on the side of capital. Ian McKay demon­ of the shadows and give it the attention it strates that in the case of Scottish bakers, deserves. Evocative and free-ranging, his a militant union could not withstand pres­ efforts clearly illustrate the diversity and sures created by an outbreak of competi­ potential richness of the field, as well as 204 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL underscoring the difficulties, both con­ others about them. Not only does Klaus ceptual and methodological, that need to delineate the multitude of literary forms be overcome if it is to be worked success­ used by the miners, he draws on that fully. diversity to make a convincing argument Structurally, The Literature of Labour that the literature contributed to their col­ consists of a brief preface and seven lective sense of occupational identity. Still autonomous essays, four of which have another approach to the literature of been published previously, and some of labour can be found in the longest piece in which have been translated here into Eng­ this collection, "Let the People Speak for lish for the first time. Though all the Themselves: On the Documentarism of essays focus on Britain, and deal in some the 1930s and 1940s," written in collab­ way with the general issue of literature oration with JurgenEnkemann. Beginning and the working classes, that is roughly with an analysis of the timely changes in the extent of their interconnecledness. the "composition," "social position," and Chronologically, the breadth of Klaus' "consciousness" of the artistic intelli­ vision extends from the eighteenth gentsia, Klaus investigates the formal and through the mid-twentieth century, and thematic properties of a genre which is his methodological range is practically as both a product of the "new media" and sweeping, bach essay utilizes an indepen­ targeted at its "principal consumers, . . dent approach, whether biographic, bibli­ the broad mass of the working (not to ographic, thematic, formal, and so on. mention the unemployed) population " (129) As is usual with collections of this sort, such eclecticism can be construed as In large measure the credibility of both a disappointment and an inspiration. these articles derives from Klaus' ability The quality of the essays is uneven in style to interpret literary artifacts in interdisci­ and content, and while this may be partly plinary perspective, combining historiog- attributable to some dull writing, or raphical insight with a critical awareness indifferent translations, it also reflects the of literary form. Yet notwithstanding fragmentary nature of much of Klaus' evi­ these significant accomplishments, his dence, a problem that is not uncommon work is marred by conceptual and meth­ for practitioners of working-class cultural odological Haws that are no doubt inher­ history. Overall, however, the results arc- ent in any attempt to construct a new inter­ encouraging and three essays particularly pretive field. deserve recognition. Fundamentally, the problem with In "The Historical Bent of the Chartist Klaus' work is that his vision is too dif­ Novel," Klaus makes a valuable contribu­ fuse and lacks a theoretical framework. tion to the intellectual historiography of Nowhere is the need for a concrete, Chartism by demonstrating that the theoretical design more evident than with movement's literature evinced a unique regard to defining exactly what the term sense of history. But the essay is also use­ "literature of labour" constitutes. Accord­ ful for its discussion of radical literature ing to Klaus, the term "covers plebeian. in formalist perspective: specifically, the working-class, proto-socialist and effort by Chartist writers to politicize the socialist literature." i\) But, since this novel as a genre. By contrast, Klaus raises leaves open "a vast middle ground of pos­ a different set of issues altogether in sibilities," (170) questions naturally arise. "Forms of Miners' Literature in the For instance, does the term refer to the Nineteenth Century." Here the focus is textual contents of a given work? Does it not so much on philosophy and ideas as on demand the existence of a particular sociology, and the literary evidence is by ideological perspective, or imply a spe­ the workers themselves, rather than by cific theme or subject matter? Or is the REVIEWS 205

literature of labour best defined by a cate­ Although these criticisms do not seri­ gory of authorship? On this latter point. ously detract from what Klaus has Klaus echoes Lukacs' critique of "vulgar endeavoured to do, they nonetheless give sociology" ("Narrate or Describe," rise to a point worth considering: if the 1936), suggesting that there is a tendency literature of labour represents an alterna­ to exaggerate the relevance of writers' tive to the great tradition, should not the social backgrounds as determinants in literature about the literature of labour do their work. Significantly, Klaus' own the same? Curiously, this point does not essays deal with writers from various seem to have occurred to Klaus. He social and occupational spheres, including appears neither to have been influenced members of the working classes, but also very greatly by the alternative visions of bourgeois intellectuals. the great tradition put forward by critics Kqually central to the question of such as Williams, nor to be concerned defining the literature of labour is the with establishing his own innovative problem of deciding which forms of approach to this separate subject he has expression can properly be classified as chosen. Instead, he openly concedes of literature. Obviously, novels, poems, and his own work that: "Methodologically, autobiographies should qualify, and Klaus none of this is new." (xi) makes use of each. But some of his mate­ Both as historiography and as literary rial is taken from personal letters, films, criticism Klaus' essays arc struck from and even testimonial evidence given highly conventional moulds. In virtually before governmental committees; in these every case, the emphasis is placed on out­ cases, it seems the designation "litera­ standing individual achievements and ture" has perhaps been stretched too far. uniqueness, on identifying who did what Parallel to these problems of defini­ first and, by the measure of some arbitrary tion is another significant conceptual scale of value, how well. Consistent with issue involving the relationship of the lit­ academic tradition the focus in every erature of labour to the so-called great tra­ instance is single-mindedly male. And, dition. In Klaus' view it is implicit in any paradoxically, given Klaus' acknowl­ definition of labour writing that it is not edged debt to social history, the socio­ part of the great tradition. And while this economic and institutional aspects of the does not preclude the possibility of mak­ literary culture of labour are mostly ing connections between the two, Klaus ignored in favour of what is in essence a seems eager to take the distinction further biographic and thematic approach. by arguing that the literature of labour is Finally, hy focusing solely on the interests so much a product of isolation and cir­ of writers to the total exclusion of readers' cumstance that it cannot be part of any responses, Klaus' framework is, in a man­ tradition at all. This is an interesting ner of speaking, sturdily supply-sided. thesis, but it is one to which he has a hard Ironically, then, Klaus has written a time adhering, perhaps because it runs so work on radical literature which, save for contrary to the prevailing doctrines of crit­ its subject matter, replicates in miniature ical and historiography conceptualiza­ the conceptual and methodological tion. At one point Klaus actually refers, paradigms of conventional historiography himself, to the "long if sporadic and and literary criticism. Yet merely by iden­ uneven tradition" (60) of the literature of tifying a forgotten body of literature, and labour, and —- whether inadvertently or by revaluing — to use a Lcavisite phrase not — he further sanctifies this notion of which Klaus himself employs — the sig­ continuum by arranging the collection nificance of some works that arc already chronologically, according lo the periods familiar, he has performed an original and the individual essays discuss. stimulating task for which critics and his- 206 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL torians should be grateful. Their challenge "Labour in the Municipalities" exam­ now, and his, loo. is to develop a ines labour interest in municipal framework by which these rich new mate­ socialism, an idea which was best rials can be most creatively and construc­ expressed in The Socialist and the City, by tively investigated. F.W. Jowett, who before entering Parlia­ ment in 1906 had been a councillor on the Graham Carr Bradford City Council and chair of its Concordia University health committee. Actual labour accom­ plishments, as compared to hopes, were K.D. Brown, ed.. The First Labour rather modest before 1914; but the article Party: 1906-1914 (London: Croom Helm does show that many labour people were 1985). not obsessed with dreams of centralized state power. THIS IS A COLLECTION of articles aimed "The Labour Party Press" describes at specialists in the history of the British some of the myriad little local papers that Labour Party. (All others are advised to provided a kind of bulletin board for the learn about the topic by going to Ross local movement. All were precariously McKibbin's The Evolution of the Labour financed, and most lasted only a few Party, 19101924.) Brown's anthology years, but collectively they played a very has an introduction, titled "The Edwar­ important role. The article also describes dian Labour Party," and twelve chapters a much more ambitious venture, The written by twelve different authors: Dailv Citizen, which was launched by the "Ideology and Composition," "The Labour Party in October 1912 with an ini­ Labour Party in Scotland," "The Labour tial expenditure of -£40.000. For a brief Party in Wales," "Labour in the time it reached a circulation of 250,000, Municipalities," "The Labour Party but readers drifted away, and it died in Press," "Labour and the Trade Unions," June 1915 after absorbing over "Labour and Education," "The Labour £200,000. Many who were ready to vote Party and State 'Welfare*," "Labour and labour undoubtedly did not wish to read a the Constitutional Crisis," "Labour and labour paper. The capitalist press then and Women's Suffrage," "Labour and Ire­ now provides livelier reading. Some land," and "Labour and Foreign Affairs: Labour Party hopefuls still harbour A Search for Identity and Policy." Few of dreams of a successful national news­ the articles sparkle, but all are amply foot­ paper, but the prospects in the present noted and based on comprehensive seem as remote as they proved to be in research. 1912.

"The Labour Party in Wales" portrays One of the themes which recurs in sev­ the strengths of the often ignored Lib- eral of the articles is the Labour Party Labs, trade union officials who entered search for a clear identity. Keir Hardie Parliament as Liberal MPs, but who also and the other founders of the party were represented the special interests of labour. socialists, but they deliberately kept the One Welsh miner entered Parliament as a label out of the party name. But if the Liberal in 1905, and 21 years later was Labour Party was not explicitly socialist. joined by three more in 1926. These men how was it different from the Lib-Labs had long records of accomplishment and whom Hardie had so often attacked? The considerable support in their communi­ answer was that Labour, unlike the Lib- ties; and yet three years later the Miners Labs. was independent of the Liberal Federation of Great Britain voted to Party and could, therefore, better defend affiliate to the Labour Party, thus bringing the interests of working people. The Lib-Labism to an end. forty-two Labour MPs, however, owed REVIEWS 207 their success to a secret electoral pact in Alex Callinicos and Mike Simons, The which the Liberals agreed to abstain from Great Strike — The Miners' Strike of running candidates in some consitucncies 1984-5 and Its Lessons (London: Pluto in return for Labour abstaining in others. 1986). The winning Labour candidates had only faced Conservative opponents and had, of "YOU HAVE BEEN FIGHTING the legions course, relied on Liberal as well as of hell," A.J. Cook, (he miners' leader Labour votes. This was not a robust kind during (he genera! strike of 1926, told the of independence. members. Arthur Scargill could have told the members the same thing at the conclu­ "The Labour Party and State "Welfare' " sion of the 1984-5 strike. They had struck shows how hard it became for the Labour for a year; during that lime they experi­ Party to maintain an independent position enced the most draconian measures that a as the Liberal government, elected in right-wing government like Thatcher's 1906, proceeded to enact an ambitious could devise to force them back to work. programme of social welfare, which In the end they were forced to submit — included old age pensions, free school literally starved back to work in some lunches, unemployment insurance, and cases. Yet they returned to work under medical insurance, partly financed by their union banners and in some cases led increased income and estate taxes. All the by pipers. Callinicos and Simons rightly Labour MPs could do was to vote for the conclude that the strike was "one of the legislation while criticizing it for not most epic struggles ever waged by work­ going far enough. The Lib-Labs might ers anywhere," and that the men and have done as much. "Labour and the Con­ women who endured the longest major stitutional Crisis" describes Labour as a strike in British history "were all heroes, junior partner to the Liberal government in every one of them." its battle with the House of Lords for rejecting the radical budget of 1909. The With these sentiments, most socialists Labour MPs voted for the Parliament Act would agree. They would agree also with of 1911 which took away much of the the authors' conclusion that the miners lords' power, but had little impact on the were deserted by the Labour Party and outcome. "Labour and Foreign Affairs: A betrayed by the TUC — both of which Search for Identity and Policy" deals with refused to lend practical aid. Also uncon- the one area in which many Labour MPs troversial is their contention that the strike were in opposition to the Liberal govern­ was engineered by the government as part ment, arguing for less armaments and a of its campaign against the trade union policy of European neutrality in opposi­ movement. The authors make this case tion to Lord Grey's upholding of the simply and convincingly. But far more Triple Entente with France and Russia. problematic is their main thesis that the But even here, the most effective and per­ miners failed in large part because of the sistent of Grey's critics were radical Lib­ inadequacies of their own leaders. This eral backbenchers. Hardie and his associ­ point they hammer home throughout the ates had succeeded in creating a Labour book. Miners' leaders are portrayed as Party machine and a respectable contin­ vacillating and tainted by a reformist/ gent in Parliament, but in 1914 that party bureaucratic outlook. Only rank-and-file still seemed to lack a clear purpose and a organization by militants could have won coherent ideology. the strike, by providing mass pickets to persuade the Nottinghamshire miners to join the strike and by preventing supplies of coking coal from reaching steel mills. Melvin Shefftz The NUM leadership dampened these SUNY. Binghamton 208 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

plans. The history of the strike was one of popular support for militant unions like "repeated upsurges of initiative and activ­ the NUM and, eventually, to achieve ity from below, each in turn sat upon by socialism. But if this strategy is to be branch and area officials." rejected, than Callinicos and Simons must But the authors do very little to prove suggest a realistic alternative. The notion this conclusion. On the most important of great class struggles fought success­ question of the strike — how to get the fully by a vanguard of militant workers Notts miners out — they are naive in like the miners is not realistic. The strike attributing Notts intransigence to weak showed that at the very least they require area and national leadership. They ignore the support of other trade unionists. One the fact that in three successive strike bal­ would have thought that a strategy involv­ lots in January 1982, October 1982. and ing collaboration with all groups on the March 1983 the Notts miners voted for left — including the hated Labour Party strike action by only 30, 21, and 19 per — is necessary if striking workers are not cent respectively. In March 1984 in a bal­ to remain isolated in the future. lot to decide whether to strike over the Also problematic is the authors' biggest pit closure programme in NUM attitude to one of the most serious issues history they managed only 26 per cent in of the strike — whether the NUM should support of a strike. have called a national strike ballot. It did But this is the problem with Callinicos not. and there are very good justifications and Simons' argument. Always they for the decision. But Callinicos and ignore the difficult questions that faced Simons' justification for no ballot is weak NUM leaders and pose a simplistic solu­ and would annoy many trade unionists. tion based on more militancy. "A strategy They conclude, rightly, that the ruling of mass picketing could have brought vic­ class cares nothing for democracy. They tory." It is debatable whether mass pick­ give examples to show this. Thus they eting could have stopped steel production conclude. "Socialists should be equally or closed power stations and the docks. pragmatic about ballots." But socialists But in making this case the authors should will only alienate workers if they adopt have given proper emphasis to the fact that the same cynical attitude towards democ­ steelworkers themselves were extremely racy as their enemies. Moreover, this is a hostile to stoppage of steel production, peculiar attitude for the authors to adopt. fearing they would lose their jobs. When since they continually complain of "lead­ the dockers came out in support of the ership from above." Clearly, in crucial miners in the summer of 1984 they were situations such as when workers have to brought out by militant shop stewards. decide whether to strike, Callinicos and But within a few days it was the militants Simons would be happy to have workers who had to give in in the face of clear led by an educated elite — by people with opposition to a support strike by their proper Marxian understanding, unlikely members. to be swayed by the propaganda forces of the state. These are difficult facts for socialists to accept. But lack of support by the trade Criticism of the NUM leadership could union movement as a whole must be be constructive, but to put this forward as accepted as a fact and not simply glossed the main error of the strike will do nothing over if. as the authors want, we are to to promote an effective strategy in future learn the lessons of the strike. Callinicos struggles. The first step to good strategy is and Simons reject the lessons learned by good analysis; in this respect Callinicos the left miners' leaders, who want a broad and Simons' book is disappointing. democratic alliance of all groups and Frank Roberts organizations on the left in order to win Simon Fraser University REVIEWS 209

David 1. Kertzer, Family Life in Central cropping families such households pre­ Italy, IHH0-19I0: Sharecropping, Wage dominated. Differing significantly from Labor and Coresidettve (New the English model Laslett assumed to be Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University the case for western Europe generally, a Press 1984). substantial minority of Bertalia residents for the period 1880-1910 lived in complex THIS IS A STUDY of family organization households. Given life-cycle factors, it is and co-residence among sharecroppers likely that most residents spent part of and peasants in Bertalia, Bologna, a their lives in such households. The young parish located in the central Italian and elderly were especially likely to live agricultural region of Emilia-Romagna. in complex rather than simple family "Our intention," Kert/er writes, "is to households. Arguing that these findings move the Italian case more to centre stage have a wider significance, Kertzer further in the current debate over changing pat­ suggests that central Italy may have been terns of coresident'? in Western European typical of other regions in Europe where history." The impact on family life sharecropping economies were prevalent. brought about by transformations in In early sections, Kertzer describes nineteenth-century agriculture and by the Bologna economy after I860, the urban and industrial growth have domi­ spread of rural capitalism and the agrarian nated this literature. Recent scholarship crisis of the 1880s, and the demographic has shattered conventional images of a and occupational changes that accom­ stable pre-industrial rural world isolated panied urban and industrial growth at the from a capitalist market economy and of turn of the century. By 1880, share- extended family arrangements collapsing cropping, which for centuries had domi­ under the weight of urban and industrial nated central Italy, had declined due to expansion. The early revisionist work of expanding capitalist agricultural Peter Laslett and his colleagues at the Cambridge Group for the History of Popu­ enterprises and the development of local lation and Social Structure indicated that industry. An agrarian crisis served to pre-industrial populations in western speed up the pace of mechanization in Europe typically lived in simple nuclear agriculture and cash crop production. As family households. This "discovery" landowners sought larger and more heav­ undermined the supposed link between ily capitalized commercial farms, many industrialization and the nuclearization of sharecroppers fell into debt, lost their the family. Further studies have con­ farming contracts, and were forced to join firmed that lhe transformation of rural the growing ranks of rural and urban populations into urban and industrial peo­ workers. ples involved ongoing, complex pro­ Kert/er next turns to the central con­ cesses. We now know, for example, that cern of the book: the relationship between many pre-industrial "peasants" engaged mode of production and household com­ in proto-industrial production and many position. Whereas agricultural labourers rural labourers worked for wages rather (braccianti) typically lived in simple fam­ than simply for a portion of the produce. ily households, sharecroppers commonly resided in three-generation multiple fam­ However, Laslett's work created its ily households comprised of elderly par­ own orthodoxy by ignoring "exceptional" ents, unmarried daughters, married sons, cases where pre-industrial complex family daughters-in-law, and grandchildren. That formations did exist. It is this challenge a large minority of Bertalia residents — that Kertzer takes up. In nineteenth- 43 per cent in 1880 — lived in complex century central Italy, he argues, complex (mostly multiple) households is explained households were common; among share- by the presence of sharecropper families, 210 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

which were three times more likely than Kertzer's comparison of household com­ bravcianti to reside in multiple house­ position data for 1880 and 1910 shows holds. This pattern of co-residence is "virtually no aggregate change in the linked to the particular form of economic coresidential pattern of the people of Ber- and social organization that characterized talia" in 1910 and hence "no support to sharecropping. Unlike braccianti, who the nuclearization thesis." Though the worked for wages on the large estates, a number of households almost doubled in sharecropper household was the site of this period, the proportion of simple and production; running the farm demanded multiple types (roughly 64 percent and 55 the labour power of all the members resid­ per cent respectively) remained ing within the household. The share­ unchanged. According to Kertzcr, no cropper's annual contract, which bound decline occurred in the frequency of com­ the entire family to work the landowner's plex households between 1880 and 1910 farm, also obligated the tamily to provide because the bracciumi, who had been capital in the form of farming implements numerically dominant since 1880. were and furnishings. Ancient feudal ties were simply making the transition from one evident in the family's contractual obliga­ form of wage labour (agriculture) to tion to pay tribute, replace lost family another (urban/industrial) and thus con­ members with hired help (at the family's tinued to reside in simple households. expense), and permit the landowner to Similarly, sharecropper families still rep­ inspect the family at will. The contract resented a substantial minority within the had considerable repercussions for house­ parish in 1910 and continued living in hold composition "for it meant that there complex households. Indeed, the tre- could be no coresidence without the full- quency of multiple households among time participation in the household unit of sharecroppers actually increased slightly production." In an effort to maximize during the period. But the explanation labour power and optimize productivity. seems incomplete. Why did the entry oi sharecroppers naturally sought the largest increasing numbers of sharecroppers into family possible. At the same time, brac­ urban wage labour at the turn of the cen­ cianti unable to earn sufficient wages in tury — a point Kertzer stresses in an ear­ agriculture sought non-agricultural jobs in lier section — not result in fewer share­ public works, railroads, and manufactur­ cropper (multiple) households in 1910? A ing (sugar refineries and food processing "slight" increase in the frequency of mul­ plants). tiple households among sharecroppers could hardly have offset the increasing Whereas Laslett practically denied proletarianization of this class. any link between economic change and family forms on the grounds that nuclear Least satisfying are the final chapters families predated the industrial era, on migration and kinship as Kert/er per­ Kertzer wants to document whether forms much fancy quantitative footwork changing economic conditions affected to produce few conclusive results. Some­ co-residence patterns in a region where what ironically, the findings indicate that complex households were common. He central Italy was very typical of other goes to great pains to prove that this western European and North American period did indeed witness significant eco­ pre-industrial communities. We learn that nomic and social change, especially in the pre-industrial residents experienced high occupational structure where the number rates of mobility, though such movements of brucciami entering the urban industrial were local in scope and confined largely to intra-provincial moves. While mobility work force dramatically increased. How­ rates were high for all occupations and ever, despite tremendous population ages as well as for both sexes, migrants growth and substantial economic change, REVIEWS 211 were most likely young workers. their husbands and fathers-in-law but also Kertzer's calculations also confirm Lutz their husband's mothers. Kertzer fails to Berker's thesis that simple households address adequately women's oppression usually underwent an extended family within the family. He stresses instead the phase to take care of the elderly. Tracing separation of the spheres and the indepen­ extra-household kin links for residents at dence of sharecropper wives who appar­ ten-year intervals, he found that most ently wielded tremendous domestic households with kin links to other house­ authority over the household and the other holds had ties to no more than four such women within it. While this avoids the households; that daughter links were more pitfall of attributing male power to frequent than son links because women feminine passivity, it underestimates the left the parental home upon marriage; that remarkable extent to which sharecropping kin ties linked relatives from different women toiled with their men in the fields occupations; and that persisters were more — a point Kertzer himself concedes — at likely to have kin than immigrants. Unfor­ the same time as it obscures important tunately, Kertzer provides no insight into questions regarding domestic labour, gen­ the character of kin networks. We do not der relations, and relations between learn whether individuals valued such ties women of differing status residing under or even how often they saw each other. the same roof. It is not enough to assert simply that (some) women exercised Kert/er's study makes an important power withing the domestic sphere with­ contribution to the growing literature on out also exploring the limitations that patri­ co-residence and family organization. A archal forms imposed on female power both convincing materialist argument is given inside and outside that sphere. for the presence of pre-industrial complex households in Bertalia. Of course, addi­ The author's uneasiness with qualita­ tional community studies are necessary to tive sources accounts for the inadequate confirm Kertzer's thesis that sharecrop- treatment of social relations. Only rarely ping regions fostered complex house­ does he discuss actual sharecroppers and holds. A few references to several studies peasants in Bertalia. and these portraits of communities in southern France, par­ are taken from heavily biased middle- and ticularly in the Pyrenees, are hardly con­ upper-class sources and they are clumsily clusive, especially when they refer to stuck onto the end of a chapter. Consult­ (often temporary) stem family arrange­ ing folklore sources might have provided ments of landholding peasants and not to new insights. In a recent study of Sam- sharecroppers. bucca, western Sicily. Donna Gabaccia effectively used proverbs to supplement To his credit, Kertzer considers the her statistical findings indicating that con­ ways in which economy, family forma­ trary to conventional images of southern tion. and family strategies affected Italians as extremely (if not amorally) women within a sharecropper household familialist. nineteenth-century Sicilians organized along patriarchal lines. Stress­ lived near friends and highly valued their ing male privilege in the public sphere. friendships. Finally, Kertzer sets up a Kert/er notes how the male head of the confusing dichotomy between "urban" household directed the family enterprise and "industrial" jobs. True, railways pre­ and acted as the family's liaison in the dated (though they also stimulated) indus­ wider community. Whenever decision­ trialization, but it is misleading to call making was shared, married sons, not railway jobs in 1910 non-industrial urban women, participated. Aside from a brief jobs but sugar refinery jobs industrial. reference to the vulnerability of Yet, none of these weaknesses seriously daughters-in-law forced to obey not only detracts from Kertzner's important "redis- 212 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

covery" of the allegedly mythical pre- Washington Post that "Poland may not industrial complex household. appear a profitable investment for you now. But if we can succeed with what we Franca lacovetta are doing here, it will benefit you in the York University long run." The preponderance of religious sym­ Albert Szymanski, Class Struggle in bols at Solidarity functions, the papal Socialist Poland (New York: Pracger ring-kissing, and the demands tor 1984). privileged media access and educational status for the Roman Catholic church THE LATE ALBERT SZYMANSKI was an should perhaps have given pause to those all too rare type of American academic — on the left who hailed Solidarity as a he was a dissident. Like many who write model for workers east and west. Another about hastern P.urope and the Soviet key element of Solidarity's ideology to Union he had an axe to grind, but his was which Szymanski draws attention was a a pro-socialist, not an anti-Soviet one. rather ugly strain of Polish nationalism However one feels about his personal manifested by explicit identification with biases — which he never attempted to the rightist anti-Semitic inlcr-war regime conceal — his work is worth reading if of Jozef Pilsudski. The Wall Street Jour­ only because it is in such sharp contrast to nal of 12 November 19SI reported that mainstream western scholarship. "The Pilsudski cult has burgeoned openly this year. ... In Gdansk, the birthplace of Class Struggle in Socialist Poland is a Solidarity, the shipyard was renamed in study of the rise and fall of Solidarity. Mr. Pilsudski's honor at a gala cere­ Szymanski's central thesis is that "those mony." who identify with liberation movements and the advance of socialism should have Solidarity's September I9SI national welcomed the Polish military's actions" congress (to which the leadership pro­ in suppressing the world's most famous vocatively invited Irving Brown, a well- union. On the whole he makes a pretty known CIA labour operative in post-war good case, if one accepts his framework. western Europe) marked the point of no His argument is strengthened by using return. The congress adopted a draft eco­ "almost entirely pro-Western, anti- nomic plan which called for "dismantling Communist sources to establish the most central directives and seek(ing| to facts." make enterprises self-financed entities S/ymanski contends that Solidarity's whose strategies and product mixes are leadership intended to overthrow the exist­ shaped by market forces rather than by ing social regime in Poland and replace it state plans." This was pretty clear. Walesa with a more market-oriented economy was to make it even clearer at what was open to western capital penetration. He supposed to be a secret meeting of Sol­ does not have much difficulty establishing idarity's top leadership in Radom ten days at least a prima facie case for this. In before the military crackdown: November 1980 Solidarity leader Lech After all, let us realize thai we are bringing this Walesa volunteered that "I am not a system down. Let us at last realize this. If we socialist," a remark which was amply agree to have private shopkeeping, buy up state confirmed a few weeks later with his farms, and ensure complete self-management. judgement that the election of Ronald this system will cease to exist. ... No change Reagan was "a good sign to the world and of system can take place without blows being Poland." A year later, as his union was exchanged.... moving inexorably towards a showdown In the event, blows were exchanged with the government, Walesa advised the but it was Solidarity, not the "system" REVIEWS 213 which ceased to exist as a result. Cold War. The nationalization of industry Szymanski argues that this was as much a and redistribution of land were widely result of political as military factors and popular and involved tens of thousands of despite its identification with Solidarity workers and peasants, but there was no the bulk of the Polish working class had mass uprising a la Nicaragua nor even any not entirely abandoned hope in the pos­ significant working-class mobilizations of sibilities of socialism. He notes that in the the sort which accompanied the "Prague last weeks before the showdown, popular Coup" of 1948. support for the confrontationist "radicals" was melting away and he points to the Kremlin fiat historically played a relative ease with which Solidarity was rather large role in what Isaac Deutscher suppressed as evidence of his hypothesis. referred to as "The tragedy of the Polish Certainly the Polish military believed that Communist Party." The Polish CP. heir to Solidarity's working-class base was not a long Marxist tradition, was regarded by anxious to bring the system down. The the Bolsheviks as the best section of the decision to play the tapes of the Radom young Comintern. Bui as revolutionary meeting over national radio was designed enthusiasm waned in Russia in the late to discredit the union's leadership as 1920s and the 1930s the Polish group was "anti-socialisl elements" and thereby jus­ repeatedly purged and then finally liqui­ tify the imposition of martial law. dated outright in 1938 as incorrigibly "ultra-left." Several years later, as the On a more general level Szymanksi war was drawing to a close and it was argues that the popularity of the post-war becoming apparent that Poland was to fall socialist property transformations is within the Soviet sphere the Kremlin widely underestimated in the West. He scrambled to put together an organization cites various U.S. Army and Radio F-'ree which could serve as an administrative Fiurope reports to support this contention apparatus for what was to be its satellite. and points out that the working class ben­ Far from being a party of revolutionists efited substantially in terms of standard of the reconstituted communist party was living, educational opportunity, and social from its inception a party of bureaucrats, mobility. In 1971 for instance, a Polish hand-raisers, and careerists. miner earned as much as a doctor or a professor. If Szymanski's partisan approach sometimes gets the better of him, he is by There are points where Szymanski's no means simply an apologist. He makes enthusiasm for "socialism" Polish-style some incisive criticisms of the Polish runs away with him. An example of this is regime's longstanding policy of subsidiz­ his assertion lhat "there was a genuine, ing unproductive peasant smallholders working class/peasant revolution in (who are organically hostile to any kind of Poland in 1944-48 that was protected, but socialism) and the concomitant attempts in no way caused, by the presence of the to placate their earthly representatives in Soviet Army." He even claims that the the clerical hierarchy. It is hard to argue "Polish revolutionary process" was "very with his conclusion thai in the final similar" to what occurred in Nicaragua in analysis. "The probl em with Poland was 1979. He is unable to produce any evi­ not too much socialism, but not enough" dence ("pro-western" or otherwise) to — particularly if one takes that to include support this fanciful interpretation and so the political, as well as the economic, has to content himself with repeating it dimension. several times throughout the book. The truth is that Poland went "socialist" by Thomas Rutman Kremlin fiat as the lines hardened in the Toronto 214 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

John Riddell, ed., Lenin's Struggle for a reactions of various parties and political Revolutionary International. Documents currents in the labour movement to it: the 1907-1916: The Preparatory Years (New Zimmerwald conference and the develop­ York: Monad Press 1984). ment of the Zimmerwald left; the war and revolutionary crisis in Czarist Russia; the THIS VOLUME OF DOCUMENTS, the first war and the crisis of German soc ial in a series on the history of the early Com­ democracy; and finally, the split in the munist International, begins with the pro­ Second International. This volume's col­ ceedings from the 1907 Stuttgart congress lection of documents covers each of these of the Second International. It is an appro­ in turn, ending on the eve of the Russian priate opening since it was at the Stuttgart Revolution of February 1917. Given lim­ congress in the aftermath of the 190? rev­ ited space the most appropriate way to olution in Russia that Lenin and his fol­ indicate the relevance of the 604 pages of lowers, with others such as Rosa Luxem­ this book is to comment briefly on the burg, began the lengthy and difficult pro­ three main themes of the debates covered: cess of constructing an anti-war, inter­ war; colonialism and nationalism; and nationalist current within the Second bureaucracy and reformism. International. The intention of this vol­ By the time of the Stuttgart congress ume is to present the key discussions and in 1907, two phenomena were evident: debates that occurred between the future first, that a major war was looming; and leaders of the new international and vari­ second, that the majority of parties in the ous anarcho-syndicalist, centrist, and Second International counterposed reform reformist currents. of their respective capitalist societies to The documents, well translated and fundamental social change. Underestimat­ often appearing for the first time in Eng­ ing the depth of crisis. August Bebel. the lish, cover more than Lenin himself. For­ central leader of the German Social gotten voices such as Alfred Rosmer, Democratic Party (SPD). sought to Nikolai Bukharin. Gregory Zinoviev. Karl encompass both reformist and revolution­ Liebknecht, Karl Radek, and Christian ary currents in one party. In his view: "No Rakovsky are again heard. As the names one in German ruling circles wants war." suggest, the book largely limits its choice (25) At the same time he agreed that the to the two countries where the debates international should oppose war prepara­ were focused — Russia and Germany. tions — preferably all protests should go Unfortunately, given their role in society through the SPD's parliamentary deputies. at the time, too few women's voices are Jean Jaures, the leader of the French included. Socialist Party, argued that conflict in the International arising from competitive Nonetheless, there is considerable rel­ F.uropean powers could be resolved by an evance in these debates for labour history "international court of arbitration." (30) and political studies in Canada. As David His moderate perspective was opposed by Bercuson noted in his Confrontation at a strong minority delegation in his own Winnipeg (1974), "Lenin's success fired party. In the end, with the aid of Luxem­ the imagination and spurred the efforts of burg, Lenin and Julius Martov, the con­ socialists throughout the world." The gress reaffirmed previous international ideas of the collection under consideration resolutions against "militarism and were central in the labour and socialist imperialism." politics of Europe as well as in the Rus­ sian revolutions of February, and particu­ Nonetheless, when World War I broke larly October. 1917. out, the volume documents how most Following the conference at Stuttgart socialist members of European parlia­ came the outbreak of World War 1 and the ments supported "their" government, REVIEWS 215 voted for war credits, and in some cases, ship between the European workers' such as Belgium and France, even joined movement and the peoples of what is war cabinets. The "Great War," as World today termed the Third World. Riddells War 1 was then called, proved indeed to be editorial choice is to be commended here the greatest slaughter known hi humanity for its balanced presentation. Readers can up until that time. The 1916 Battle of Ver­ judge for themselves in the debate dun alone took the lives of some six hun­ between the left in the Second Interna­ dred thousand German, French, and other tional, which fought to embrace the strug­ allied soldiers. As the war dragged on gle of the "oppressed nations" against many worker supporters of socialist par­ colonialism, and the moderate pro-war ties affiliated to the Second International wing which thought otherwise. Hendrick lost whatever enthusiasm they might have Van Kol, a leader of the Dutch Social had for the conflict. Democratic Labour Party, for example, International leaders, such as the held that providing aid to Africa was "a SPD's Karl Kautsky, reflected these anti­ theoretical pipedream:" war sentiments. Yet in rejecting an out­ Suppose that we bring a machine to the savages right pro-war position he also opposed the of central Africa, what will they do with it? clear anti-war views of Lenin and Perhaps they will start up a war dance around Zinoviev as articulated in their pamphlet it. . . . Perhaps they should send some Euro­ "Socialism and War" (1915), which is peans to run the machines. What the native reprinted in the text. Downplaying the peoples would do with them. I do not pro-war trajectory of the International, know. . . . Perhaps the natives will destroy our Kautsky argued thai it was "not an effec­ machines. Perhaps they will kill us or even eat us. . . . Therefore we must go there with tive tool in wartime" as essentially it was weapons in hand. ...(14) "an instrument of peace." (148) His arti­ cle, entitled "Internationalism and the Such racial and pro-imperial views War" argues that although "taking sides enjoyed a surprisingly wide hearing in war according to your national point of among the relatively high income layers of view clearly endangers the Interna­ the working classes in the European par­ tional ... we certainly can rally behind a ties which constituted the majority of the war fought to fend off enemy invasion." Second International. (146) The essence of Kautsky's position is Lenin'x Struggle for a Revolutionary perhaps best contained in his own slogan International also contains excerpts from of "struggle for peace; class struggle in the discussion of the immigration com­ peacetime." mission initiated at the Stuttgart confer­ Trotsky's critical anti-war reply to ence. Here. Morris Hillquit, a leader of Kautsky, entitled "War and the Interna­ the Socialist Party in the United States, tional" (150), is a valuable inclusion lend­ proposed that the International support ing balance to the debate. It was first seri­ restrictions on the immigration of Asian alized in the Paris Russian-language daily workers. This debate echoes Canada's Galas {Voice), edited by the Menshcvik west coast history on the perils of the leader Julius Martov. When a German "yellow race." Hillquit claimed that translation began to circulate in the Ger­ Chinese and Japanese immigration man underground, editorial notes inform "threatens the native-born with dangerous us that Trotsky was sentenced in absentia competition and . . . unconscious strike­ by the imperial government to several breakers." At the same time, he months in prison. admonished how he had "absolutely no racial prejudices against the A second theme, running throughout the documents of the first volume pub­ Chinese " (17) lished in this series concerns the relation­ Related to what was termed the "colo- 216 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

nial question" was the "national ques­ the special features in the period of the tion." Again, the historical documents of development of capitalism, when the labour politics grapple with social issues comparatively peaceful and cultured life still topical. In "The Socialist Revolution of a stratum of privileged workingmen and the Right of Nations to Self Determi­ 'bourgeoisified' them, gave them crumbs nation," Lenin argued that "Socialist par- from the table of their national capitalists, tics which did not show by all their activ­ and isolated them from the suffering, mis­ ity, both now, during the revolution and ery and revolutionary temper of the after its victory, that they would liberate impoverished and ruined masses." (20) the enslaved nations and build up relations While the above illuminates the core with them on the basis of a free union — of Lenin's position, a single sentence can­ and a free union is a false phrase without not capture the richness of the debate. The the right to secede — these parties would major article included in the collection is be betraying socialism." (354) The world, Zinoviev's "The Social Roots of Oppor­ he said, was divided into oppressed and tunism." (475) Here he analyzes both the oppressor nations, the nationalism of the "revisionist" ideologies of German social former being progressive, while that of democrats and their social basis, the latter, reactionary. Zinoviev's research reveals that a high A third important theme in the docu­ proportion of SPD members were from the ments published here concerns the rise of better-paid sections of the work force. industrial capitalism, its expansion Unskilled workers composed only 14,9 throughout the world — "imperialism" per cent of the organization. In part, this —- and the resulting social stratification situation came about as unionized workers and socio-political consequences. Most and skilled workers were largely members of the now-divided Second synonymous. Beyond the economics of International favoured its reunification the development of a "labour aristocracy" following the war. Even some anti-war and a "labour bureaucracy" Zinoviev social democrats held that the crisis of the analyzes the social stratification o\' the International was due to what they termed work force from the available data, the "opportunist" or "social chauvinist" mainly the case of Berlin, then links the positions of individuals under the extreme material condition of the upper stratum to pressures of war. The Marxist wing, and it its ideological drift into reformist and is principally Lenin, Zinoviev, and "social chauvinist" politics, Trotsky that we hear from, held that blam­ The related, but distinct, notions of a ing the war and individual leaders was not labour aristocracy and a labour bureau­ sufficiently explanatory. They maintained cracy have long been controversial among that it was necessary to understand how labour historians and industrial the "pro-imperialist" views of leaders of sociologists. Most have avoided the the International originated in the pre-war notion of a labour aristocracy — a notable "opportunist" (reformist) currents and exception being E.J. Hobsbawm in his found their material base within sections book Labouring Men (1964). The notion of the working classes themselves. of a labour bureaucracy, on the other They sought both explanation and ver­ hand, has been widely utilized. Indeed, it ification in the earlier writings of Karl has been the key explanatory variable for Marx and Friedrich Engels utilizing the many social theorists. But the concept, as notions of a "labour aristocracy" and a employed by Lenin and Zinoviev, is not "labour bureaucracy." In his article "The equitable with Max Weber's "ideal type" Collapse of the Second International," nor with that of most contemporary writ­ Lenin argued that "opportunism was ers. In the Marxist usage employed, engendered in the course of decades by bureaucracy is not simply an administra- REVIEWS 217 lion carrying oui decisions. Rather, it times as much investment capital into involves power and privilege for the large industry as towards small. In fact, bureaucrats. Although this section of the the bulk of investment in large industry text avoids the balance of views manifest has come from the government, while in in earlier sections, for labour historians small industry the larger share has been and sociologists the discussion on the raised by small entrepreneurs. This has linkage between ideology, social stratifi­ been a deliberate strategy: primary indus­ cation, and bureaucracy is perhaps of try has been seen as a base for more diver­ most interest. sified, small-scale industry. At the same The final section of this collection of time, India has chosen the path of indus­ documents is appropriately entitled trial as well as agricultural self- "Toward the New International." Again, sufficiency; and the government has used some hitherto unavailable material is pre­ licensing controls both to limit the pres­ sented. Resolutions and programmatic ence of foreign firms and to cut imports submissions of Second International con­ by substituting domestic products for ferences. such as the one at Kienthal, imported ones. record a debate on the appropriate basis Although the government concen­ for political unity and the future of the trated on large industry, it held high hopes International. Manifest on the hori/on is for the small-scale sector. Gandhi's belief the founding of the Third International but in the value of handicrafts and village this is the subject of the next volume in the industries (spinning and weaving, paper- series. The richness ot historical debate making. and pottery) exerted a powerful on still relevant social questions, the influence in the Nehru years. The extreme care taken in translations, and the advocates of a free and open economy, context notations by (he editor make this untrammeled by bureaucratic controls. volume an excellent beginning to an also made their mark. The idea that important new scries. small-scale industry was a necessary com­ plement to large-scale industry was pres­ Christopher Schenk ent from the beginning. Following Gan­ Toronto dhi's principles, the government has sub­ sidized cottage industries and reserved spheres of production for them. It has also Mark Halstrom. Industry and Incuuulitx: iried to disperse modern industrial produc­ 1he Social Anthropology of Indian tion by encouraging small industries. It is Labour (Cambridge: Cambridge Univer­ difficult to show that handicrafts have sity Press 19X4). benefited, but small industry has. In mod­ ern India, workshops with a handful ot THK POST-lNDIiPLNDKNC'B government employees using modern machinery or of India has consciously encouraged ingeniously adapting older technology- industrial development within two sectors: are integral to the economic system, sup­ a large-scale sector and a small-scale sec­ plying large lactones or competing with tor. The large-scale sector was empha­ them. Such shops make machinery parts. sized in the three five-year plans initiated electronic components, pharmaceuticals. under Nehru (1951-66) as he sought to and plastics as well as textiles, ceramics, vitalize an underdeveloped and export- and wood, paper, and leather products. oriented economy through the creation of They may pay low wages and be housed large. Indian-controlled units in primary in primitive sheds, yet they produce with industries (steel production, mining. precision technological I v sophisticated power, and petrochemicals). This empha­ objects. Tlicv fall well short of the Gand- sis continued under Indira Gandhi: and it hian ideal because they are. with tew has seen the government direct 10 to 25 218 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

exceptions, dependent on the business of Indian Factory Workers is a study ot large industry and on the subsidies and workers in four engineering factories in licensing practices of government; but Bangalore. Industry and Inequality is they now provide a large pan of India's based on fieldwork done most intensively industrial output. in Bangalore and Bombay, but also in Cal­ In an earlier book, South Indian Fac­ cutta. Ahmeddebad. Ludhiana. Poona, tory Workers, published in 1976, Mark Kanpur, Faridabad. Ranchi, Hyderabad, Halstrom argued that the modern Indian Madras, and Trivandrum, a list that economy has created a major division in includes eight of India's ten largest cities, the population: on one side of the bound­ Most of this fieldwork was done from ary are those employed in the large-scale 1975-7, the period of Indira Gandhi's sector, and on the other, those in the emergency rule when civil liberties were small. In this book he revises that view. suspended, strikes banned, and when the He still maintains that for industrial work­ Indian government was exceedingly edgy ers in India, a job in a large firm is far about criticism. Halstrom says that he and more desirable than in a small shop. Large the people he interviewed — workers, firms come under the Factory Act; small union leaders, and employers - were ones do not. In matters of health and conscious ot the situation and careful safety — ventilation, space, lighting. about where they met and what they said. hazards around machinery, chemicals. Some of the fieldwork was done after and noise levels — conditions in many Mrs. Gandhi's election defeat in 1977; small shops (and in some factories) are and Halstrom has been able to amass horrifying, but small shops are subject to plenty of material. He has come to the no regulation or inspection. Workers in conclusion that, while individuals can be these shops have no protection in the mat­ placed within one sector or another. ter of minimum hours, or days off each tarnilies cannot. week, or more extended leave. Laisser If there is a sharp difference heiween faire rules supreme; the laws that exist the worker in a small shop and the remain unenforced. A more important employee of a large factory, it is that the immediate concern of most workers is that latter tries to keep his wife at home and his large firms pay more: they are unionized children in school, while the former sends and they can afford it. Still more impor­ them out to work. The disposable income tantly. a job in a targe firm offers more of the two families may be very dose. security (Indian workers expect unions to Nuclear families themselves are not inde­ fight for security first and wage* second). pendent. hut elements ot extended In South Indian Factory Workers families that operate as economic units Halstrom suggested that it was security even though households ma> be miles that separated the few from the many. apart. A factory worker with a secure job People with money or property, with gov­ is obliged to feed and house relatives who ernment jobs, or with permanent jobs in come in from the country looking for tem­ factories and offices were the few within porary or casual work. The competition the citadel; the rest were the many fight­ for jobs at all levels is intense and it is ing to get in. This vision suggested an through personal contacts and networks ot elite class of workers, employed within family friends and neighbours that jobs the large-scale, regulated, and organized are won. These networks, however. sector, who had entered the citadel and bridge the organized and unorganized sec­ who were sharply distanced from those in tors. There is, Halstrom has decided, no the unorganized sector outside. wall between sectors, but a continuum on a steep slope. Now Halstrom says that the boundary is not as clearcut as he had thought. South The argument is convincing; but the REVIEWS 219

value of the book goes beyond that. It is the maritime strike of 1890. Ending in rich in descriptive material and suggestive defeat, this strike prompted many union­ detail, and provides a remarkable portrait ists to turn to political activity, where they of entrepreneurship, markets, and tech­ hoped to accomplish by legislation what nology as well as labour in the small-scale they had failed to gain by striking. The industry of modern India. labour movement's new-found faith in the political process led to the launching of Hugh Johnston the ALP. Simon Fraser University While acknowledging the strike's role as a catalyst to political activity, Verity Burgmann, 'In Our Timt-': Burgmann sees the reaction of socialists Socialism and the Rise of Labor, — a widespread endorsement of the par­ JNH5-I905 (Sydney, London, and Boston: liamentary route to socialism — as the George Allen and Unwin 1985). crucial turning point, one that other histo­ rians have failed to emphasise. She argues that the socialists* conversion to political THIS BOOK IS a revisionist history of the activity and their subsequent endorsement genesis of the Australian Labor Party. of the fledgling ALP provided the party Burgmann argues that previous historians with key recruits. These socialist support­ have overlooked or underestimated the ers had neither prior links to the estab­ importance of those whom she calls 'first lished parties nor any commitment to the wave socialists' in the formation and early endless Australian debate over free trade, successes of the Labor Party. "The pro­ and so helped foster the new party's tagonists in standard labour histories arc image as an independent political force. the individuals who rode to personal suc­ From their ranks came many an articulate cess on the back of the labour movement; leader: Burgmann cites the example of the forgotten, or confined to brief mention or 1891 New South Wales election, when "at odd footnote, are those who remained least eight" of the 35 Labor MPs elected agitators, who articulated the ideas that were members of the Australian Socialist galvanised the movement. . . ." It was, League. (82) Burgmann maintains, not elected Labor Party representatives of ALP officials but Burgmann's thesis, that socialist these agitators "who at each step encour­ enthusiasm was a key ingredient in the aged the working class to think of itself as creation of Australia's labour parties, car­ a class with interests opposed to that of ries with it a dismissal of 'labourism,' the employing class." (3) And that was a which is described as "an adaptation ot crucial factor in facilitating the Labor Par­ colonial liberal values to a working class ty's early successes at the polls. To sup­ reaiily rather than an ideology in its own port this argument, Australia's early right." Burgmann argues that labourism socialist movement is described state by lacked the vitality of socialism, that it state, from 1885 to 1905. alone could not inspire the working class to build a new and independent political The first Australian socialist group party. Labourism triumphed as the even­ formed in 1872, with links to the Interna­ tual ideology of the ALP "simply because tional Workingmen's Association in the socialists . . . were fundamentally mis­ Europe. The Democratic Association of taken in their belief that socialism could Victoria was a short-lived effort, how­ he reached through the parliamentary pro­ ever, and permanent groupings did not cess. Though socialism sowed the seed. emerge until more than a decade later, in Laborism reaped the harvest." (195) the late 1880s. Radicalism was stimulated by the bitter strikes and the economic Burgmann insists that not only did the depression of the early 1890s. especially early ALP gain substantial benefits from 220 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

socialist participation, but she also offers addressed to an Australian debate, the convincing proof that the traditional, book deserves a wider audience. Whiggish interpretation of this period — Australia's first wave socialists chan­ concentrating on the emergence of an ALP nelled their energies into support for assured of both longevity and success — reformist strategies. As these failed, misses the sense of fin de Steele Australia. enthusiasm dissipated. Burgmann argues Her narrative suggests that the early that of all the disappointments none was socialists were a free-wheeling, dynamic- as significant as the outcome of the deci­ lot and — at least until the 1890s — were sion to support the ALP. She concludes far from unanimous in either their analysis that "'the state socialists failed dramati­ of capitalism or their programme for cally to realise 'Socialism In Our Time' achieving socialism. Organizations were through parliament, and in attempting to formed and split; economic theories and do so, did much to disarm the forces of political innovations, both indigenous and first-wave socialism." (197) Enmeshed in foreign, were argued over, accepted, or the liberal democratic process, Labor MPs rejected; experiments in cooperative busi­ moved further and further away from their ness ventures and communal settlement roots in the labour movement and the schemes were pursued by some and con­ working class. The foreword to the book demned by others. About the only shared offers a personal endorsement of belief was the optimistic assumption that Burgmann's analysis. It is written by the socialist millennium was at hand. George Petersen, himself a Labor MP and he admits that "as one who has seven The book provides an excellent times woken on a Sunday morning to find account of the various initiatives of Aus­ that 20,000 men and women have voted tralia's early socialists. An entire chapter, for him, it is humbling to confess that I for example, describes William Lane's am not at all sure why they should elect attempt to build a socialist "New Aus­ me to parliament, as the representative of tralia" in Paraguay. Burgmann attempts a bureaucratic political machine over to make sense of this experiment by giving which they have no control." the history of two settlers in New Aus­ tralia, as well as an outline of Lane's career. Her description of the departure Jeremy Mouat from Sydney of the first group bound for University of British Columbia New Australia captures something of the single-minded determination of these Ldward D. Beechert, Working in Hawaii: pioneers. When health authorities discov­ A Labor History (Honolulu: University of ered measles among the children and Hawaii Press 1985). began to bar some from leaving, parents camouflaged similarly infected children PLANTATION WORKERS in Hawaii have with liberal amounts of raspberry jam. developed unusually strong, effective Good humour did not always prevail: a unions; the purpose of this book is to disgruntled mother complained about the explain how and why. It covers two baby food purchased for the trip: "I have closely related themes: the formation of a always fed my baby on Patent Groats and wage labour force in the sugar industry 1 ain't going to change for anybody — and the emergence of the union move­ Socialist or no Socialist." (19) Burgmann writes well, with an eye for detail that ment. makes the book both enjoyable and Beginning with a brief survey of enlightening, an encouraging reminder Hawaiian life before European contact, that political history need neither be tedi­ the author explains how the inception of ous nor neglect social history. Although foreign trade precipitated the breakdown of communal institutions. Then he moves REVIEWS 221 into the early nineteenth century and the annexation of Hawaii to the United Slates core of his story, which focuses on Ihe in that year opened the prospect of ending ongoing efforts of foreign sugar planters indentured servitude. This precipitated to create and control a plantation labour some of the first labour protests on the force. Hawaii experienced a succession of islands, aimed at compelling the planters labour systems. When the decline of the to implement the law instituting free native Hawaiian population through labour. The crucial period of worker endemic descasc undermined the planters' organization did not come until the 1930s efforts to transform them into wage and early 1940s, however, when federal labourers, the government in 1850 legal­ legislation and its enforcement through ized indentured servitude. The opening of the National Labor Relations Board a preferential market in the United States encouraged Hawaiian longshore, sugar, stimulated the rapid expansion of sugar and pineapple workers to affiliate with the cultivation after 1876. Planters sought to International Longshoremen's and Ware­ meet their acute need for workers by housemen's Union. Recognition of collec­ importing thousands, first from China, tive bargaining and the first industry-wide then from Japan and finally from the sugar strike took place in the early 1940s, Philippines, in addition to .smaller num­ followed by rapid gains for those workers bers from Portugal, Spain, and Puerto not displaced by the mechanization of the Rico. Thus in Hawaii as in many other plantations in the 1950s. Beechcrt ends sugar producing areas, the demand for his account in 1959 when Hawaii became labour, outstripping native supply, gave a state of the United States and the rise to a heterogeneous labour force com­ Hawaiian labour movement became fully posed of several distinct nationalities. Not integrated into national labour institu­ surprisingly, cultural differences divided tions. the workers, making unity against the growers difficult to attain: most early The strength of this study lies in its strike actions (from 1X90 through 1938) detailed portrayal of the interaction involved only one ethnic group. between sugar growers and plantation labourers. One comes away with a clear Ethnic diversity aside. Hawaiian sugar understanding of the sugar growers" ini­ workers differed from their counterparts tiatives to solve the problem of labour in the Caribbean and elsewhere in thai scarcity, the limits on such initiatives many in Hawaii found alternatives to work posed by U.S. laws restricting Chinese in the cane. After a few years, some immigration and favouring free labour. returned home; others went to work on and the workers' responses. The growers' rice or pineapple plantations or moved to initiatives often inadvertently furnished the cities as dock or craft workers; still the issues tor organization; the workers' others migrated to the United States main­ responses stimulated new growers' land. Such mobility meant the planters actions meant to reassert control. The faced an ongoing problem of labour book is also informative on the timing of replenishment. Although outside opportu­ the successive waves of immigration into nities may have made workers less prone Hawaii, on the legal dimensions of to assert their rights on the plantations, worker management and protest, and on they also created links between urban and labour organizations and strikes. The rural areas and between Hawaii and research — in sugar company, sugar California that in certain periods grower association, and union archives — stimulated labour organization. seems thorough.

A second circumstance favouring Despite a few fascinating comments unionization was the fact that Hawaii fell on the role of Japanese newspapers and under United Slates laws after 1900. The Buddhist temples in providing support for 222 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

Japanese labour organization in the early five essays appeared posthumously in twentieth century, Beechert docs little 1984, two years alter her death. The intro­ with the recent socio-cultural approaches ductory material provided by Kelly and to labour history. Perhaps because the some of her closest associates places these author deplores ethnic identifications as essays in historical context. Kelly an impediment to effective unionization, describes in the preface how she moved he is not sensitive to the workers' experi­ from an interest in Renaissance Italy's ence of ethnic difference and the changes fascination with perspective, proportion. wrought by the end of immigration in and scale to an engagement with the new 1934 and the emergence of a new genera­ vantage point provided by feminism. Both tion of Hawaiian-bom workers. Although feminist theory and Marxism inform Kel­ Beechert says he means to study the evo­ ly's work, which centres on women's lution of worker consciousness, the book experiences in Europe before 1800. Kel­ gives little concrete sense of the social ly's contribution, however, extends far activities of production, of differences beyond these geographical and time limits between plantations, and of workers' per­ because ot her commitment to grappling ceptions of all this. with conceptual and theoretical issues rel­ Furthermore, the reader who is not evant to women's history as a whole. already familiar with Hawaiian history These contributions form the basis ot the may be somewhat confused by the lack of discussion which follows. context. The evolving organization of the sugar industry, market trends, and the Kelly viewed feminism as a "vantage interaction of power-holders in Hawaii point" from which historical change and with the United States government must continuity might be re-examined. From have influenced grower-labourer rela­ this vantage point Kelly raised questions tions. The role that such structural factors basic to the entire discipline. In "The played in shaping the opportunities and Social Relations of the Sexes" (1976) she limits of plantation owners and workers. developed those ideas formulated in the however, is not made explicit. early 1970s on historical periodization. categories of analysis, and theories oi Nevertheless, this book should interest social change. Asserting that "the relation historians of American labour because it between the sexes is a social and not a sheds light on the influence of urban natural one." Kelly provided some oi the organizing in the United States on labour clearest challenges to past historiography relations in a very different rural society. and theory. She challenged historians to The book also should appeal to research­ examine critically the relevance of ers investigating the sugar economy in accepted periodization for women's his other parts of the world, but the reader tory. as well as suggesting forcefully must work hard to draw out the compara­ (along with Natalie Zemon Da\is), that tive significance of the Hawaiian ease, for sex must be a social category of analysis the author does not do it. equal in importance to class and race/ ethnicity. Finally, she began to suggest Catherine LeGrand how historians might integrate Marxist Queen's University and feminist approaches in trying to under­ stand social transformations. Joan Kelly, Women. History. and Theory (Chicago: University of Chicago 1984). This essay was followed by the publi­ cation of "Did Women Have a Renais­ THIS VOLUME OF essays represents the sance?" (1977) which emphasized the best of Joan Kelly's work in women's his­ need for historical specificity in the tory. Written mainly in the 1970s, these analysis of the social relations between REVIEWS 223

the sexes. In rejecting the accepted wis­ analyze both patriarchy and feminism. As dom about the equality of Renaissance the authors of the introduction point out in women, Kelly established some criteria reference to courtly love, she identified "'a for measuring women's position in the problem only conceivable from a Marxist context of specific time periods, class, vantage point but given shape through and race configurations. Kelly urged that feminist questions — that is, how to the regulation of women's sexuality be explain the origin of apparently deviant or compared with that of men; that women's resistant values in the culture and their economic and political roles be examined function as ideals.' " (xxi) Kelly within the context of the education neces­ fathomed how such values could serve as sary for work, property, and power; and a limited power base for women while al that women's cultural roles in shaping the same time providing an accommoda­ society be examined as well as the ide­ tive ideal. ology surrounding women. The inquiry Kelly's understanding of the intercon­ into property and power relations and the nections among class, sex/gender, and examination of the private/public race led her to view patriarchy as the prod­ dichotomy evident in the early essays con­ uct of specific historical conditions. tinued to engage her in later essays, espe­ Likewise she wrote about early feminism cially "The Doubled Vision of Feminist as the product of historical circumstances Theory." (1979) In the latter she proposed and extended our conceptual vision of that feminist theory had been blinkered by feminism back into the past. "Early acceptance of the nineteenth-century Feminist Theory and the "Querelle des public/private dichotomy which presumed Femmes' " (first version published in that men inhabited a public sphere while 1982) argued for a 'four hundred year-old women remained in a separate private/ tradition of women thinking about women domestic sphere. Kelly domonstrated how and sexual politics in European society these assumptions permeated theory about before the French Revolution." (66) This women in the past and how they have con­ essay was to have comprised the first tinued to be reflected in contemporary chapter for a book on feminist theory. radical-feminist and socialist-feminist While she never completed this work, her writings. "The Doubled Vision'" argued notes suggest that she viewed the feminist tor the recognition of overlapping soeio- tradition as "comprehensive and cumula­ sexual spheres as a more adequate recon­ tive;" (xxiv) feminist theory, she main­ struction of women's past; Kelly, tained, emerged when women living on moreover, hypothesized that as public and the margins of a dominant culture experi­ private spheres diverged, women lost con­ enced the "discrepanc) between the real trol over productivity, property, and their anil the ideal." This consciousness of dis­ persons, a point of view also put forward crepancy produced oppositional values by Mary Ryan. which challenged misogyny and defended women as a social group. What Kelly has The insistence on the "doubled Ms- tried to do then is to describe a process, a ion" illustrated her conceptual approach consciousness, which she perceived at the to women's history; thus, class and sex/ core of the feminist tradition. This histori­ gender interrelationships were equally cally specific consciousness was important in her formulations. Kelly was intimately tied to material realities. Her particularly concerned with ideology and analysis of history, of women, of patriar­ consciousness and how these intersected chy, and of feminism, rooted both in with the actual social relations ol men and Marxism and feminism, invited the reader women. Consciousness was key in her to transcend diehotomous thinking and to analysis and she used insights derived actualize the "doubled vision" both in the from Marxist theories of ideology to 224 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

realm of historical reconstruction and in protagonists and antagonists of compara­ the realm of history. ble worth legislation can learn something Kelly's insights remain central to from this approach. women's historical experiences and their The book is divided into four major conceptualization. Other historians have sections: an introduction; 'Technical incorporated and built on these contribu­ Issues in Job Evaluation;" "Four Ap­ tions. What remains crucial, however, is proaches to Assessing Wage Discrimina­ the necessity to push these insights fur­ tion;" "Legislation and Litigation;" and a ther, to complete the task of writing a final section presents the conclusions. comprehensive history of the feminist tra­ In the introduction, a paper by Stein­ dition which includes the nineteenth and berg explains the nature of the problem twentieth centuries. This project entails addressed by a comparable worth policy the incorporation of several different and discusses the efforts to achieve this strands of a feminist movement which dif­ policy in the context of equal pay and fers from the early feminism discussed by employment policy in the United States. Kelly. The development of feminist social England's paper, as well as that of movements in the modern period suggests Shepcla and Viviann. presents an interest­ new dimensions to the feminist conscious­ ing review and assessment of the various ness Joan Kelly sought to illuminate for socio-economic and psychological hy­ us. potheses which attempt to explain occupa­ tional segregation by sex. These two Linda Kealey papers seem to emphasi/e two points. Memorial University First, it is unlikely that there is some sin­ of Newfoundland gle. simple explanation for the occupa­ tional segregation of the labour force by Helen Remiek, ed., Comparuhh- Worth sex; rather there are are number of causal factors involved. Until we have further and Wage Discrimination (Philadelphia: empirical analysis, moreover, we arc Temple University Press 1984). unlikely to determine, for certain, which of the various hypotheses is ihe most use­ IN VIEW Oh" the increasing pressure in ful. Second, in view of the above, both both Canada and the United Slates to papers conclude that attempts to get at the expand the public sector coverage of equal male-female wage differential so lei > pay for work of comparable worth (equal through a policy of job integration by value) and (perhaps more controversially) affirmative action (a policy that would to extend the legislation into the private probably be attractive to private sector sector, this book of essays provides a very employers because it would be less costly useful discussion of the issues involved in and less disruptive) is likely to be at best a developing and implementing such a pol­ very slow process and. at worst, may not icy. Overall, the book provides a balanced succeed at all since we are not sure pre­ view of the subject. While it is clearly the cisely what has generated the segregation. case that most of the authors are in favour I think this view is correct and would add of a comparable worth policy (and provide further that while a policy of job integra­ evidence supporting the need for such tion may benefit new entrants to the legislation), the editor does not approach labour force, it may do little to help the the topic wearing rose-coloured glasses. women who are currently being dis­ Space is given to outlining various diffi­ criminated against, and who may be culties that are encountered in trying to unwilling or unable (for many reasons) to implement such a policy and, where pos­ move into the traditional male occupa­ sible, attempts are made to suggest con­ tions. structive solutions to the problems. Both REVIEWS 225

In the section on technical issues in Hence the problem of appropriate weight­ job evaluation, the thrust of the three ing may not be of great concern. papers is to analyze critically the key tool The final paper in this section by used in implementing a comparable worth Remick also provides food for thought. policy — the job evaluation scheme. She points out that the application of Beatty and Beatty provide a useful over­ detailed job evaluation analysis to view of the various job evaluation women's jobs, particularly the so-called methods thai can be used and discuss 'nurturant' occupations (nursing, for some problems (limitations) associated example) will force many people (both with them. A number of" technical prob­ women and men) to confront their cultural lems are addressed, and I think one of the perceptions of such jobs with actual job main conclusions of this paper can bo content, and thus hopefully bring about a interpreted as a warning: while advocates re-examination of the relative worth of of comparable worth policy propose such occupations. replacing the (discriminatory) market mechanism for determining wages and In the third section ("Four Ap­ salaries with a job evaluation process, proaches to Assessing Wage Discrimina­ there is the danger that, unless extreme tion"), three of the four papers outline care is exercised, the job evaluation methods by which the degree of discrimi­ scheme itself may be sex-biased. Such nation can be assessed, and all four dis­ bias can creep in, for example, if the cuss methods of adjusting compensation. selection of compensation factors reflect Remick's paper outlines the Washington the characteristics of male jobs; it the State study in which regression analysis weighting of the compensation factors determined that the compensation in reflect male norms; if the key or bench­ female-dominated jobs was only about 80 mark jobs used to determine internal wage percent of that in male-dominated jobs of structures are themselves sex-biased. comparable worth. Similar results were found by Pierson, Koziara, and Johannes- The concern regarding bias in the job son in a case study of a public sector evaluation plan is also raised in Treiman's union. Using regression analysis to deter­ paper, which focuses specifically on the mine the (male) weights for the various problem of choosing weights. Using data compensation factors, they then compared from the April 1971 Current Population the wages that females actually received Survey (U.S.) to simulate a job evaluation with those they would have received (for a scheme and its application, Treiman given point score) had they been compen­ shows that when compensation factors are sated in the same way as males. The not highly correlated with one another, results indicate that, on the average, males changing the weights assigned to them earned approximately 18 per cent more can change the ordering of jobs with than females in comparable jobs. The respect to their relative worth (because it Treiman, Hartman, and Roos paper uses a changes their points score) and can hence more aggregate approach to assess the affect their relative pay. Unless there is a wage differential, regressing average consensus on the choice of factors and occupational wages on four job character­ factor weights, therefore, job evaluation istics and two individual characteristics. schemes may be relatively advantageous By this method, they found that 26 per­ to certain social groups, such as white centage points (60 per cent of an overall males. Having recognized this, however, 43 percentage point gap) of the differ­ it should be noted that there is some ential was due to differences in the rate of empirical evidence which indicates that return on the given characteristics of there is, in fact, considerable correlation male- and female-dominated occupations. between some compensation factors. In terms of correcting the observed 226 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

male-female wage differentials, several assessment of the role of labour in the procedures are outlined in this section, push for pay equity between males and although the three papers by Remick, females in occupations of comparable Pierson, Koziara, and Johanncsson, and worth. Trciman, Hartman, and Roos seem to In concluding, let me say that the book favour estimating a salary line for the is comprehensive and touches on most of male-dominated jobs and then raising the the issues pertinent to the comparable wages in female-dominated jobs to that worth controversy. Moreover, the survey line. The paper by Bergman and Gray of the literature technique used in several argues in favour of a wage realignment of the papers is quite useful, particularly where the newly realigned wage structure for those people who would like to do fur­ would be similar to that which would exist ther reading in this area. From my view­ in the absence of sex discrimination. The point as an economist, however, the one authors envisage this realignment as a aspect of the problem which does not two- or three-stage adjustment process, seem to have been dealt with sufficiently the first stage being initiated by ajoh eval­ (although it is discussed to some extent in uation comparison of male and female the conclusions) is an analysis of the jobs. likely impacts in the labour market when wage adjustments of this sort are actually The final major section o\' the book made. How will employers react, for provides a useful and informative discus­ example? Will they reduce their demand sion of comparable worth legislation and for females by attempting to substitute litigation in North America. In an inter­ males and/or capital in the production esting paper, Cadieux outlines articulately process? Will total employment in female the Canadian legislation and summarizes occupations decline? For readers inter­ a number of cases that have been dealt ested in such potential problems, and for with in the federal jurisdiction. Her dis­ policy-makers interested in designing cussion makes it clear that an equal pay legislation that would attempt to minimize for work of equal value policy not only such adverse effects, some discussion ot can work, it already has worked in this these problems would ha\e made a useful country. Mary Heen's paper discusses addition to the book. some post-Ciunther legal issues that are not yet resolved in the United States (what evidence needs to be presented to prove a Roberta Fdgecombe Robb Title VII compensation discrimination Brock University claim) and provides some guidelines for assessing cases before a "comparability" Kathryn M. Borman, Daisy Quann. and lawsuit is filed under Title VII, Dean, Sarah Gideonsc. eds.. Women in the Roberts, and Boone argue, moreover, that Workplace: Effects on Families (Nor­ advocates of a comparable worth policy wood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation should not limit their activities to the con­ 1984). fines of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Rather, they should also be look­ THh SOCIAL significance of the dramatic ing at some of the state equal pay acts and increase after World War II in the employ­ fair employment practices legislation with ment of American women with children is regard to pursuing comparable worth. the main concern of this book. Between Alice Cooke's paper complements this ap­ 1940 and 1980. women's labour force par­ proach by discussing developments in ticipation increased from 27.4 to 51.1 per selected states. And last but nol least in cent. By 1980, over 45 per cent of married this section, the paper by Portman, women with children under six were Grune, and Johnson provides a useful employed. This study adds to the burgeon- REVIEWS 227 ing literature that is attempting to under­ The professionally presented coher­ stand the implications of this phenome­ ence of this volume, however, is offset by non. Specifically, Women in the Work­ the degree to which the articles vary in place broaches the question of how the their quality and significance. Some of the workplace, social services, and public chapters are unnecessarily tedious. They policy should respond to such changes in seem to be more concerned with providing employment patterns. an appearance of scientific objectivity The outcome of a multidisciplinary than with dealing with the important mat­ conference held at the University of Cin­ ters at hand. Terms are often carefully cinnati in 1981 which included scholars of defined, for example, but are not placed psychology, sociology, history, anthropol­ within a general theory which would ogy, and public policy, this edited book is, allow a fuller understanding of the issues. at least at first glance, strikingly coherent. The earlier chapters, which tend to draw It is organized into nine chapters, plus an on received psychological wisdom con­ introduction, all of which are clearly pre­ cerning the needs of young children, arc sented, stating their purposes, providing especially disappointing. Though this summaries of their arguments, and exam­ book is devoted to stressing the signifi­ ining their policy implications. The coher­ cance of the social context, authors such ence of the book is further emphasized by as Sroufe and Ward are prone to general­ the fact that several of the writers refer to ize about "natural" needs and propen­ each other's work. Despite the different sities. They refer, for instance, to playing objectives of the various articles, they all and games as being the very activities that tend to share a basic underlying assump­ fathers naturally enjoy engaging in with tion that families cannot be understood in their children. The authors do not suggest isolation from their social context. As the that these kinds of inclinations have any­ introduction notes: thing to do with a specific social and cul­ Americans see work, in which individual fam­ tural structure. The social context is fur­ ily members spend much of their lives, as a ther mystified by the way Sroufe and world separate Irom the family and do not ade­ Ward fall back upon the notions of quately recognize either the consequences of "choice" without indicating what its work for individual and family lives or the con­ social basis might be. They imply that tribution of the family to the workplace. Gov­ some people are able to exercise choice ernment has largely retrained from concerning while others are not; they do not analyze itself directly with ihe family's well-being until how the social context produces these vast it has overtly failed in its responsibilities. (3) differences in choice. Their analyses only In attempting to rectify this situation, go so far as to suggest that " where there is the authors have examined in particular choice, we would encourage parents to how public policy could be reformed to delay onset of day care for as long as pos­ deal with problems concerning early sible and. especially, to make the transi­ childhood development, the provision of tion of full-time substitute care grad­ child care, the construction of gender, the ual." (53) Another problem is that such mutual interrelations of work and the fam­ injunctions are based on inconclusive ily, the contradictions in American experiments. Shaky findings do not dis­ women's lives, the costs of traditional sex courage these authors, however, from pre­ roles, the conceptions of kinship, and the scribing public policy and parental behav­ interplay of gender roles and the state. iour. Between the sixth and twelfth Only Bernard Farber's chapter on concep­ months of a child's life is not, they warn. tions of kinship and the family reproduc­ the "optimal" time to begin full-time tion cycle docs not fit well into the overall out-of-home care. And if daycare is concern with public policy, women's necessary it should be so designed that work, and the family. 228 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

children would receive "individualized" day, high female mental illness rates, and care. Exclusive relationships are the order male violence against women. Grubb and of the day, but not an understanding of the Lazerson conclude the volume with an social context within which relationships insightful examination of the ambiguous occur. At least Lamb's chapter provides a relationship of gender roles and the state. more subtle analysis which stresses the As they note, the politicization of gender importance of "indirect" effects such as roles during the past several decades has cultural values on maternal employment given women access to state power previ­ and its consequences. ously denied them by the ideology of women's roles as "private" and familial. It was not until I reached chapter 4 that But the resort of women to the state has I began to warm to this book. Borman and had ambiguous consequences, in particu­ Frankel, adopting Rosabeth Moss Ran­ lar because of the contradictory effects of ter's structuralist model, provide a capitalism in shaping gender roles and the refreshing analysis of linkages between continued link of women to the "private" the world of work and children's games. realm of childrearing. The same agencies They argue that the full participation of of government have served the purposes of females in complex games such as soccer both feminists and anti-feminists alike. and football and adult managerial work is constrained by parallel structures of As this book proceeds it tends to gatekeeping, socialization, and interpreta­ incorporate more fully the social context, tion of behaviour. Mortimer and Soren- examines issues more critically, takes scn's review of literature on the mutual women's lives more seriously, and in the interrelations of work and the family is end is quite satisfying. also useful. But their analysis does not take us very far. For instance, in attempt­ Arlene Tigar McLaren ing to explain the large differences Simon Fraser University between the incomes of women and men, they refer to occupational segrcgration. Laurie Larwood, Ann H. Strombcrg, Bar­ One is left asking: why does occupational bara A. Gutek, eds.. Women and Work. segregation exist? In exploring the theme An Annual Review Volume 1 (Beverly of contradictions in women's lives in the Hills: Sage Publications 1985). United States, Gla/er's chapter does take us a good deal further. For Glazer. the "double day" of most women is riddled WOMEN AND WORK is the first volume in with contradictions. By participating in a series intended to highlight the impor­ the work force, women's freedoms arc tance of women and work as a topic, to not necessarily advanced. Their respon­ provide a multidiseiplinary approach, and sibilities for domestic work are still major in so doing, to contribute to the develop­ and their power in the marital relationship ment of this scholarly field. Its editors are still constrained. These problems, she open to a broad range of subjects and for­ argues, can only be solved if society is mats, but do not plan to publish single dedicated not only to profits but also to empirical studies (as opposed to case people. The relationship between families studies) or narrowly based reviews. and the workplace must be understood The series is off to a promising start. within the specific historical phenomenon The eleven essays in this book are varied, of monopoly capitalism and its ideology stimulating, and useful. They range from of separate spheres. In a following chap­ the compact summary of "Women in the ter, Quarm examines some of the negative Labor Market: The Last Twenty Years" to consequences of such an ideology: pov­ a disheartening case study of "Women in erty of women and children, the double Toxic Work Environments," with stops along the way for a three-article sym- REVIEWS 229

posium on current views of earnings dif­ differences way down to 10 to 20 per cent ferentials, as well as for articles such as and maintains that "in basically competi­ "Work and Family Linkages" and "Sex tive markets, forces are at work to erode Segregation in American Higher Educa­ discrimination." She implies that part of tion." With such diverse offerings, it is women's proclivity for household work difficult to generalize about findings. The possibly is owing to innate traits, and hav­ persistent tendency for women to earn less ing dismissed overt barriers restricting than men and to be stuck in low-wage women's choices as relics of the past, female occupations are preoccupations for does not look at the more subtle ways in many of the contributors. A number of the which gender affects opportunity. Caro­ authors, dissatisfied with the two domi­ lyn Dexter, in an article on women and the nant theoretical models as mutually exclu­ exercise of power in organizations. sive explanations of the earnings gap suggests that owing to their family- between men and women, maintain that centred socialization, women bring with elements of both are valid. As Janice Fan­ (hem into the labour force attitudes and ning Madden puts it. "No statistical study interpersonal skills inappropriate for man­ has been able to explain the major part of agerial positions in large organizations. the sex-wage differential by differences in Hence they fail to get promoted as readily productivity. No analytical model has as their male colleagues and need to demonstrated convincingly how sex dis­ resocialize themselves. Her depiction of crimination in the labor market can per­ women's characteristics and role in the sist." She concludes her sophisticated family is so bluntly drawn and so article, "The Persistence of Pay Differ­ stereotyped, however, that her effort to entials: The Economics of Sex Discrimi­ shift responsibility to women does not nation," by commenting that "the prove as convincing as her distinctions as research literature truly contains some­ to which kinds of supervisory positions thing for every partisan, but no complete are most likely to be open to them based answers for the scholar." The models are on managers' conservative assessment of inadequate, not only on the grounds of subordinates' or clients' willingness to economic logic, but because the growing tolerate females in charge. number of case studies, statistical refine­ ments, and longitudinal studies prove the On the other hand, in "Discriminating sex-wage differential to be an astonish­ Between Attitudes and Discriminatory ingly complex series of phenomena. Behaviors: Change and Stasis," William Kahn and Faye Crosby provide a brief but This book is a good source for catch­ penetrating look at the way in which spe­ ing up on the most recent research and cific characteristics of organizations rein­ literature on a wide variety of questions force discriminatory behaviour. This is pertaining to women and work. Each of often an unintentional outcome, the the articles has interesting points to make, authors maintain, flowing from the way although inevitably some chapters arc- people are accustomed to seeing the more convincing than others. While there demands of the job. Sharon Harlan offers are essays focusing both on demand and a gem of a case study in "Federal Job supply side factors, overall, those dealing Training Policy and Economically Disad­ with demand were intellectually denser vantaged Women." showing how pro­ and more satisfying. Madden's piece on grammes, which from the outside might sex discrimination is balanced by June be viewed as wonderful opportunities for O'Neill's supply side exploration of women to increase their human capital so women's investments in human capital as to make them more productive, serve and choice of jobs. O'Neill reduces the mainly to prepare participants for low- wage gap not attributable to productivity paying entry-level jobs. Sometimes this is 230 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

owing to conventional assumptions about initiative, and values they as individuals appropriate work for women, but as often bring to the labour force. Kessler-Harris it occurs out of the complicated political and Nieva, by the way. are the only two and practical factors which constrain the contributors to suggest that the workplace development of an ambitious training pro­ should adjust to suit the needs of family gramme. Harlan's article, which focuses life, rather than viee versa. on women with no hope of going to col­ Although they differ in their points of lege. is a needed counterpoint to the intro­ view and in the disciplines they study, the ductory overview by Blau and Ferber authors are similar in other ways. Of the which offers a more convincingly optimis­ thirteen contributors to the volume, only tic view of women's progress in the one was trained or works west of Illinois. labour force than any study I have seen All work in the northern United States. recently. They manage this, however, by although one was educated in the upper dealing mainly with university-educated South. Perhaps next year the editors can women, by assuming that women are broaden the geographic base of their con­ working in the areas for which they have tributors while maintaining the ver> high trained, and by not referring to the likely standards this volume establishes. restructuring of the entire labour market.

The articles by Madden and O'Neill Anita Clair Fellman constitute a dialogue of sorts, but many of Simon Fraser University the other authors appear to be talking past each other. Blau and Ferber offer recent Paul Willman and Graham Winch, Inno­ evidence that women's and men's labour vation and Management Control: Labour force and domestic responsibilities are Relations at BL Cars (Cambridge: finally moving towards some point of con­ Cambridge University Press 1985). vergence, but O'Neill in her essay, and Veronica Nieva in "Work and Family THH COI.LAPSF OF the British motor Linkages," ignorant of this assertion, go vehicle industry in the 1970s has been the on assuming that male partners spend subject of a number of studies. Willman scant time on housework. Although Dex­ and Winch have contributed to this debate ter lays much of the blame for non- by examining the introduction of British promotion at the door of would-be women Leyland's new Metro product line at managers' female socialization, Blau and Longbridge. The study focuses not on the Ferber suggest that "resistance to upward collapse of the industry, but rather on its mobility of women is even greater than to attempts to rejuvenate itself. their entry into nontraditional occupa­ By the mid-1970s the future of British tions." James Rosenbaum, in an in-depth Leyland, the sole British-controlled vol­ study using one large corporation over ume car producer, looked bleak. After time, casts doubt on whether job evalua­ significant losses in the early 1970s, the tion schemes will ever be objective Labour government was forced to inject enough to contribute to gains for women, large sums of cash into the company to while Alice Kessler-Harris, asking that prevent its collapse. In the process, the we cease obliging women to mimic men's state became BL's major shareholder. The behaviour in the workplace, and that we initial recovery strategy was based on the return to the older idea that women's dif­ Ryder Report and called for an expansion ferences require accommodation, looks to of output and employment. This strategy job evaluation as a means of redress for proved difficult to implement and by 1977 women. She advocates these schemes to management began slashing employment permit women to do their usual social and output levels. There were general roles while being rewarded for the skills, fears that the government might refuse fur- REVIEWS 231 ther funding, which would lead to the capital-intensive automated production breakup of BL and the almost certain process designed to produce vehicles in demise of Austin and Morris, the volume volume. The decision to invest in capital car divisions. The Metro project, the key and not labour, as the authors put it, to BL's revised recovery strategy, was reflected managerial concerns about widely viewed as the company's and the labour practices in the late 1960s, and the work force's last chance. National Enterprise Board's preference Willman and Winch challenge the for subsidizing investments in capital thesis that BL's troubles were Ihe resull of rather than subsidizing wages. The poor product choices. They argue that authors also discuss the decision to adopt labour relations played a critical role in a well tested, but rather inflexible, the company's failure and therefore would automated production process. The reluc­ play a critical role in any recovery, claim­ tance of British management to adopt the ing that the key to understanding the newer, more sophisticated, flexible auto­ Metro project is management's desire to mation systems, which were still being reform shopfloor social relations and in tested in the mid-1970s, provides an particular the "restoring" of managerial interesting insight into the conservative control. nature of British managerial decision making. It also raises concerns for the Precisely how management lost con­ company's survival should the Metro fail trol ot the shop flour is not outlined well. to sell as well as expected. We are led to believe that the loss of man­ agerial control in the 1960s was the prod­ Most readers will find the description uct ot shortsightedness in the inter-war of labour participation in the Metro launch period by the two key British vehicle- and the eventual reform of shopfloor making moguls, Austin and Morris, who labour relations of great interest. The failed to provide a managerial structure authors stress that labour welcomed consistent with large-scale production. investment in new technology as a way of Labour's ability to gain greater control of saving jobs. Initially, management for­ shopfloor activity is explained by the mally approached labour regarding partic­ post-1945 spread of trade unionism and ipation in the implementation process. shop steward organization in the industry. But it is clear that management had The problem with this scenario is that it is already decided on the basic design of the unclear if British management ever had new production process. At best, labour direct control of the shop floor in the vehi­ was being consulted in order to smooth cle industry or that British labour ever lost the introduction. Management was not the authority it had grown accustomed to attempting to draw on labour's reservoir during the nineteenth-century era of craft ol production knowledge. By 1979. even production: it is misleading to talk about this thin facade of consultation was management regaining control it may removed. The appointment of Michael never have had. It also raises the question Edwardes as BL's new chairman, the elec­ of why the arrangement of power-sharing tion of a Conservative government, and between management and shopfloor the deteriorating position of the com­ workers, which had worked well prior to pany's balance sheet invited a new hard the 1960s, failed. line in labour relations.

The strength of the Willman and The redistribution of shopfloor author­ Winch volume is the detailed analysis of ity played a critical role in altering BL's the decision-making process surrounding labour productivity. In a major departure the Metro launch. BI- management had from post-war practices, effort norms decided by 1976 that their recovery strat­ were no longer set mutually by manage­ egy would be based on investment in a ment and the shop stewards. Effort norms 232 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

were to be set "scientifically" by indus­ Japanese-style labour participation have trial engineers, insulated from the pres­ objectives all that different from those sures of shopfloor bargaining. The stew­ found at BL. ards were stripped of much of their authority. The role of the unions in Wayne Lewchuk negotiating for labour was also challenged McMaster University as BL management appealed directly to Tom Juravich, Chaos on the Shop Floor: labour through postal ballots and moved A Worker's View of Quality, Productivity unilaterally to reform shopfloor practices. and Management (Philadelphia: Temple Whatever the roots of British labour's University Press). authority on the shop floor, ihe Bdwardes' reforms insured it would not survive into THE PRODUCTIVITY AND quality prob­ the 1980s. lems afflicting industry in the United In their conclusions, the authors return States have been widely discussed in to the question of what motivated this recent years. From Tom Juravich's van­ change in technology and social relations. tage point as a participant observer on the They argue that there was a link between shop floor of a small New England wire the decision to market the Metro as a vol­ mill, these problems are the result of the ume car and the decision lo reform indus­ style and actions of management. trial relations. They argue that manage­ Sociological studies of industrial work ment assumed that only with tight manag­ in the United Slates have tended to focus erial control could a high quality product on sprawling unionized workplaces be made in volume. Why this is the case is owned by targe corporations. Yet, as not at all clear. This is particularly true in Juravich notes, a significant, and in his the British context, where prior to I960 view, growing, proportion of manufactur­ British workers had a tradition of produc­ ing workers are employed in small shops. ing quality vehicles with limited manager­ In the fall of 19X0. Juravich went to work ial supervision. Of more interest is Ihe as a machine mechanic in one such shop authors' argument that reform of the located in a small New F.ngland city. The shopfloor authority structure was made company he worked for employed about necessary by management's desire lo gain 150 workers in its mill. Like many such greater control of the effort bargain. companies on the "periphery" ot manufac­ According to Willman and Winch, it was turing, "National Wire and Cable" was these reforms that made the dramatic locally owned and not unionized; it paid increase in labour productivity associated wages much lower than those paid for with the Metro possible. similar work by unionized firms in the area. This book will be of interest to those considering labour's participation in the As Juravich sees it, the belief that restructuring of industries facing closure. most industrial workers are employed in The book also provides a window on cur­ large plants is one of four characteristics rent reforms of shopfloor practices of the "contemporary image of the indus­ throughout the industrial world. At Long- trial workplace." Another is the assump­ bridge, there was no need to disguise tion that contemporary industrial work managerial intentions in the late 1970s. requires little skill. To challenge this Labour was offered one choice: accept a view, Juravich introduces the concept of new managerially imposed effort bargain "craft knowledge," which is very similar or accept the closure of the plant. The lo the idea of "working knowledge" analysis leads one to ask whether manage­ developed by Ken Kusterer, who is cited ment's current interest in "Quality of with approval by Juravich. Working Life" programmes and in The production of a "three-wire REVIEWS 233 assembly," one of the company's main The primary source of chaos, accord­ products, involved a series of "simple," ing to Juravich. was an autocratic man­ "repetitive" tasks performed by nomi­ agement style. Management, concerned nally unskilled women. However, as a with exerting control, did not allow work­ result of poor quality materials, and out­ ers to participate in decisions involving dated and poorly maintained machinery. changes in the production process. Yet. in production was far from automatic and order to solve its quality and productivity required the assemblers to make frequent problems, and to reduce the chaos and decisions. In making decisions, they drew confusion on the shop floor, management on the craft knowledge which they had would have to draw on the craft knowl­ accumulated from their experience work­ edge of workers by letting them partici­ ing with the machinery, tools, and materi­ pate actively in decision-making. Man­ als they encountered on the job. Juravich agement encountered many problems himself, who repaired and set up when it attempted to implement productiv­ machines, also found Ihat he developed ity and quality improvements that could craft knowledge so that he eventually have been avoided had the workers most knew more about the machinery he directly affected by the changes been con­ worked on than management did. The sulted. nature of his knowledge of the The fourth and final conventional idiosyncracies and problems of the assumption that Juravich calls into ques­ machines was sufficiently intuitive that n tion is the belief that workers dislike their could not easily be reduced to written jobs. Juravich found that, in order to sur­ rules and procedures. vive on the shop floor, workers attempted A third characteristic challenged by to create meaning by performing their Juravich is the belief that the workplace is jobs as well as they could. They derived the site of rational and planned control of "pride and dignity" from using their craft workers. Far trom being rationally knowledge to produce quality products on organized, the mill was an anarchic envi­ schedule. Yet their efforts to make their ronment. Chaos and contusion resulted work meaningful and something to be from the frequent interruptions in produc­ proud of were constantly made difficult tion caused by machine breakdowns and by the chaos created by management. poor materials, and from frequent changes By studying a small, non-union mill, in the production procedures, high turn­ Juravich has made an important contribu­ over, and the shifting around of workers. tion towards filling a gap in our knowl­ Juravich sees two sources tor the dis­ edge of industrial work in the United organization which was symptomatic of States. By focusing on management, he the quality and produclkil) problems he has pointed 10 a factor that has not seeks to explain. In part, it is a function o\' received sufficient attention in discussions the mill's small si/c and the fact Ihat it of quality and productivity. One weakness subcontracted much of iis work from of the book is Juravich's tendency to larger corporations. It was difficult to for­ argue that what he found in a small non­ malize and routini/e operations when union mill can be found throughout indus­ much ot the company's output was pro­ try in the United States. It is true that qual­ duced by a lew workers in short produc­ ity and productivity problems can be tion runs lasting a few da\s. Competition found in large plants as well as small. and fluctuating demand for the company's Juravich also correctly notes that as a products resulted in limited profits and result of "disinvestment," antiquated and cash reserves making it difficult for man­ poorly maintained machinery can be agement to do more than plan for the short found in many industries. The suggestion. term. however, that there is a common "Atneri- 234 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL can management style" cannot be resulting in the first comprehensive study accepted on the basis of the limited evi­ of self-management in the United States. dence presented by Juravieh. Gunn begins by analyzing the defining On the basis of Juravich's own evi­ and facilitating conditions tor workers' dence, one important difference between self-management of firms in the context of small non-union shops and larger union­ a capitalist economy drawing on historical ized shops can be suggested. In his shop, ev idence and on the theoretical and empir­ productivity and quality problems ical work of Jaroslav Vanek, Paul Bcrn- stemmed in part from high turnover and siein. and Branko Horvat. The results are the lack of training: few workers stayed summarized in a table ot ten defining and on the job long enough to develop the kind facilitating conditions for workers' self- of craft knowledge that was so essential to management in the United States. The the whole process of production. In larger conditions form the heart of the book unionized shops, higher wages, benefits, It is the first condition that establishes seniority systems, and other improve­ the parameters ol the following nine; they ments negotiated by unions tend to result deal with the economic and financial char­ in lower turnover so that overall, workers acteristics ot sell-managed firms, then arc better trained and gain more craft management structures, and die need for knowledge. There is also a greater likeli­ internal and external support in a gener­ hood that large firms, both union and ally hostile environment. Condition one non-union, will have quality circles and stipulates thai "control and management quality of work life programmes that are of the enterprise is the right of all people designed, often explicitly, to tap workers" who work in it. and this right is bused on craft knowledge. Juravieh tends to dis­ their work role, no! on any requirement ot count these programmes, but they may, in capital ownership. Management is bused at least some cases, result in a different on direct or both direct and representative management style and/or some success in democracy and equality ot voting power dealing with quality and productivity among all who work in the enterprise." problems. While there may be problems (35) common to all firms, large and small. union and non-union, there are important The following case studies ol the for­ differences that Juravieh does not discuss est Workers' Cooperatives established in when he offers generalizations about qual­ Oregon. Montana. Washington. Idaho, ity. productivity, and management in the and California in the 1460s and 1470s. I he- United States. Plywood Manufacturing Cooperatives ot the Pacilic northwest established between ]*)2l and the early 1450s, and two recent Robert Wrenn worker takeovers of established firms, are University of California, Berkeley evaluated in their performance against the ten conditions. The analysis so far is Christopher Haton Gunn, Workers' Self- largely firm-specific, detailed, and com­ Manugenwm in the United States (Ithaca. prehensive. NY: Cornell University Press I9S4J. Of particular interest, and frequently missing in the literature on self- THh BELIHI THAT workers should own. management, is an analysis i>\' the role of control, and organize the work they do is union locals in company takeovers. This a logical reaction to industrial capitalism. shortcoming is addressed through studies Gunn has managed, on the whole very of the Rath Packing Company and the successfully, to combine history, theory. Denver Yellow Cab Cooperative Associa­ and empirical evidence with practical tion (DYCCA), where takeovers were ini­ hands-on facts and recommendations tiated and carried out through union REVIEWS 235 action. The Independent Drivers Associa­ Gunn recognizes that short of fundamen­ tion, (IDA), the dominant union within the tal political and economic changes, the DYCCA. has seen its role change consid­ most likely road to worker self- erably. While the day-to-day working management is through buying control of routine has not changed dramatically, the a given enterprise. Workers at the Rath overt hostility that characterized bargain­ Packing Company were able to do that ing has given way to a more cooperative through payroll deductions into an escrow approach. Grievances are now resolved by account. Quite apart from the formidable a drivers' committee within the co-op obstacles involved in the buy-out model to structure. The tact ihat management now worker self-management, the author works lor labour has apparently led to a realizes that most employee ownership considerable reduction in hostility thai schemes in the United States have been existed in the days prior to the establish­ constructed on premises of "blue-collar ment of the DYCCA. capitalism," which raises the important The creative involvement of union issue of the development and growth of a locals in the takeover ol established firms new consciousness. represents an unusual picture. Unions in Self-managed firms operating in a capitalist society, especially in times of market economy will have little control economic stagnation, have traditionally over external factors affecting the firm. been forced into defensive postures. With Thus, the development of a network of union density decreasing and concession supportive organizations and the estab­ bargaining gaining ground, unions in the lishment of linkages or coalitions with United States have lost much of their other oppositional organizations com­ offensive militancy. Nevertheless, a small mitted to change is essential. The rise of but increasing number ot unions have new social movements, especially those of taken the offensive against plant closures women, blacks, and environmentalists is and the pressure ol employers for conces­ an established fact today and the call for sions. linkages, or as Aronowit/ calls it, a new The case of the International Associa­ political bloc, is based on concrete, if lim­ tion of Machinists (IAM) District 10(1 ited experience. against Eastern Airlines is perhaps the best documented recent example of what a A comparison of contemporary determined and well organized union can Employee Stock Ownership Plans achieve. Similar instances have taken (ESOPs), Quality of Working Life innova­ place in Canada with the worker occupa­ tions (QWL). and various management- tion of the Bendix plant in Windsor, the initiated participatory schemes with the Houdaille Bumper Plant in Oshawa, and ten defining conditions of workers' self- the Windsor Bumper Company. All three management, leads the author to reject occupations were the direct result ol deci­ these schemes as falling outside the scope sions taken by the UAW Canada in of workers' self-management. Looking at response to the increasing number of plant the Canadian scene, he would exclude the closures and the loss of thousands of |obs. takeover of what is now Tembec Forest It is precisely this kind of union initiative Products Ltd. as well as the QWl. initiative that may lead to takeovers of existing at the Shell chemical plant in Sarnia. firms. Workers' control must be accompanied by The last major section of the book total ownership. Gunn goes on to argue locates worker self-management in the that perhaps the most critical determinant broader context of political and economic of whether change at the level of the firm options and limitations for the expansion could lead to broader oppositional change of self-management in the United States. in society lies in overcoming traditional 236 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL employer-employee relations and the sys­ should self-management gain a toehold in tem of wage labour. any sector of the economy, it would be Most American workers' co-ops have seen as subversive and would be con­ been alternative rather than oppositional fronted by the full power of the private organizations. This distinction, made by sector. All too often change efforts lead to the author, is crucial. Alternative organi­ social democratic reforms, defined by the zations offer their members a different author as a highly mediated form of way of living and working but they do not capitalism. Social democratic movements confront the power of capital with a view tend to work through existing institutions to radical social change. Only opposi­ of capitalist society rather than by con­ tional organizations do that. The Forest fronting them. Workers' Cooperatives have at times dem­ Given the current situation within the onstrated oppositional character. United States, which does not c\cn Even the most successful ESOPs that approach the level of social democracy as lead to total worker or union ownership it is practised in many west European would have to be defined as alternative countries, Gunn still hopes that a viable rather than oppositional organizations. It progressive coalition of forces that expect would have been helpful if the author had to see their aim realized best through discussed more fully the rapid expansion genuine non-capitalist alternatives is a of liSOPs, QWL, and similar plans includ­ realistic option for action. It is almost, but ing the response hy major unions to these not quite, as if the author would support initiatives since they indicate an important the words uttered by Branko Horvat many new factor on the labour relations scene. years ago when he argued that just as the ESOPs have increased from 843 plans cov­ market eventually corroded the feudal ering 520,000 workers in 1976 to 5,700 structures from within, the growth of par­ covering 9.6 million workers in 1984. ticipation from its most primitive form of joint consultation towards full-fledged One major union, the International self-management cannot be anti-socialist Association of Machinists (1AM) headed in spite of the attempts to misuse it for the by William Winpisinger has developed its preservation of the status quo. Rebuilding America Act with a strong focus on controlling the right of private capital in mergers, plant closures, and Gerry Hunnius capital mobility. Part of the act calls for York Uni\crsit> the creation of a development bank that would facilitate workers' control over William DeFa/io. Longshoremen: Com­ their pension fund investments. A U.S. munity and Resistance on the Brooklyn government study, released in 1981, Waterfront (South Hadley, MA: Begin reported a total market value of assets in andGarvey 1985). employee pension funds in the private sec­ tor of $326 billion, to which should be WILLIAM DKFAZIO calls his book a added $100 billion held by public sector "theoretical ethnography," suggesting pension plans. While worker/union con­ that the theoretical concepts emerged trol over these vast funds is more or less from its qualitative interviews, but to this non-existent, major unions in the United reviewer the theory and the ethnography States, in addition to the 1AM. arc begin­ remained separate. The ethnography ning to formulate policies to gain control records the daily lives and attitudes of 35 over these funds. Brooklyn longshore workers who have The obstacles and limitations to work­ been supported by a Guaranteed Annual ers' self-management in the United Stales Income (GAD won by the International are awesome. The author realizes that Longshoreman's Association as a REVIEWS 237

response to the containerization of port capitalism such as those of Daniel Bell. facilities during the 1960s. These workers J.F. Lyotard, Jean Baudrillard. Nieos are required to present themselves for Poulanlzas, and Jurgen Habermas. work every morning at a hiring hall where Aronowitz calls special attention to the they stay for perhaps an hour. Mostly they value of Hannah Arcndt's distinction seek to avoid the rare and unlikely call to between work and labour (that is, creative work and in fact have worked only a few vs. necessary exertion) to any discussion days in recent years. After the early morn­ of the significance of automation. ing check-in they are free for the day. Although these theoretical discussions Contrary to many predictions and were too sparse to be of great value, and established verities, DeFazio's work were sometimes overstated (as in suggests that receiving income without DeFazio's characterization of the long­ working has done these people no harm. shore workers as "practical Marxists"), They seem to feel that they have earned this book is important for putting once this income by virtue of the decades of more on the agenda an issue that in the painful labour that preceded the union set­ long run will be decisive for the future of tlement. They have a strong sense of sol­ capitalism as a social system. idarity among themselves, with other workers, with the union, and, in some Eli Zarctsky ways, with the community. Their aware­ Wright Institute ness of politics has expanded with their leisure. They spend considerable time dis­ cussing issues with one another as well as Ellen Meiksins Wood, The Retreat From pursuing individual forms ot leisure (for Class: A New "True" Socialism (London: example, gambling) and are generally not Verso 1986). bored. The important factors that distin­ guish their experience from the demorali­ IN THF. 1840s Marx and Fngels railed zation that affects other forms o\' "wel­ against the "true" socialists, an idealist fare" seem to be that the amount of contingent of would-be transformers of income is adequate: ihere is a feeling of the world who held that the development entitlement; and they are part of a group of socialism was rooted, not in the needs network that supports their feeling of enti­ of a particular class, but in the "interests tlement. of Human Nature, of Man in general, who The case of the GAI raises for belongs to no class." For these "true" DeFazio. and his editor, Stanley socalists, ideology was everything and. Aronowitz, in a lengthy introduction, according to Marx and Engels. they issues concerning the significance of auto­ believed "that all real cleavages are mation. post-industrialism, and the sever­ caused by conceptual cleavages." Ellen ing of production and consumption, issues Meiksins Wood adroitly introduces her that have been relatively muted on the polemical dissection of recent attempts to American left during the economic reces­ displace the working class from the core sion of the 1970s and early 1980s. As of the revolutionary socialist project with Aronowitz notes, the last clear challenge reference to these "true" socialists of the to the idea that social life and regards 1840s. For anyone at all familiar with the must be organized around work was made current outpouring of studies of language, by the authors of the Triple Revolution of the new social movements, and of the statement of 1963. Both DeFazio and much-proclaimed end of class politics — Aronowitz discuss the relevance ol the all of which shove class struggle into some GAI example to a range of theories con­ arcane and obscure laneway and declare cerned with the nature of advanced that socialism will be made via some other 238 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

more well-travelled route — this "true" stripping away the facade of socialist socialism of the 1840s is strikingly famil­ intent to expose the flawed reasoning and iar. class trajectory of the new "true" Wood reminds us that the proliferation socialists. Particularly refreshing is her of radical chic in the 1980s, whether uncompromising characterization of openly proclaiming its anti-Marxism Michael Ignatieff, whose commentary on (Laclau and Mouffe) or purporting to be the British miners' strike stabbed the decked out in fashionable marxiste garb workers' movement in the back with its (Hindess and Hirst, Gavin Kitching, the attack on militancy and an idealist call for Gareth Stedman Jones of recent publica­ a "language of trust built upon a practice tion), has seen earlier days and is not so of social comradeship." Perhaps Ignat­ much the political breakthrough of its ieff. whom Woods regards disdainfully as promise as it is an unconscious return to "the darling of the British literary press, the worst forms of Utopian voluntarism, a their favourite repentant socialist and resi­ descent into the counsel of despair that dent progressive," wanted the miners to intellectuals offer all too readily when take some time off trom the beatings they there appears no quick fix for the socialist sustained to brush up on their etiquette the habit. Many oxen get gored, neatly and better to cultivate civilized discourse with efficiently, in this book: Poulantzas. with the police and Thatcher's advocates in the his stress on the primacy of the political metropolitan boutiques or academic tea­ over the economic, his elevation of ideol­ rooms. ogy over exploitation, and his willingness If all this sounds a bit negative it is to see "democracy" as some kind of because the literature and ideas Wood is panacea bridging the capitalist and hammering away at are so politically socialist camps, is depicted correctly as muddled, objectionable, and ultimately the anticipation of the themes of the new antithetical to working-class interests and "true" socialists; those such as Gorz, Lac­ socialism. For those who want something lau, and Mouffe, who have bidden a little more upbeat. Wood docs provide a farewell to the working class most deci­ brief explanation of why Marxists have sively, are analyzed as the architects of historically insisted on the centrality of nothing more than a drcssed-up pluralism the working class in the socialist transtor- and possibly something worse, an inhibit­ mation. Moreover, using the writing of ing pessimism; the recent writing of Raymond Williams, she develops against Gareth Stedman Jones, in which the poli­ the new "true" socialists the orthodox tics of Chartism and the Labour Party are Marxist view that the only way in which a seen to be expressions of the non- socialism that does indeed address "uni­ correspondence of class, social condi­ versal human goods" can be created is tions, and political mobilization, is through the active agency and struggle of scrutinized and illuminatingly revealed as the working class. little more than the theoretical and histori­ cal rationalization of "electoral prin­ Wood is thus to be congratulated for ciples," a distortion of the history of the taking on the ideas and personalities asso­ working class that leads shamelessly ciated with what she labels a new "true" towards social democratic ends; socialism. As far as she takes her critique, America's radical duo, Samuel Bowles she takes it well. But there are two gnaw­ and Herbert Gintis, are exposed briefly as ing questions that should stick in the mind little more than champions of the potential of even her most ardent supporters. of liberal democracy. The first relates to just how and why this new "true" socialism arrived on the Others, too, are hoisted on their own scene. Throughout Wood's text Perry petard, as Wood is extremely capable at Anderson appears as a principled critic of REVIEWS 239 the idealism of western Marxism and the little comment on just what that political "randomization of history and politics" instrument might look like or be about. associated with the Althusserians and Indeed, if the new "true" socialists err in post-Althusserian new "true" socialists. writing off the working class because it No doubt Anderson's contributions in has not made a revolution. Wood tilts her Considerations on Western Marxism and arguments towards a subdued attachment In The Tracks of Historical Materialism to mass spontaneism. Against thoroughly are significant. But it is surely obvious elitist dismissals of the power and capa­ that while Anderson's selected writing bilities of the working class. Wood draws contains much of merit, his self-professed a little too bluntly a dichotomi/ation of and easily identifiable political practice leaders and led: "In the case of the Rus­ contains other, and, from Wood's per­ sian Revolution, for example, should we spective, less admirable impulses. For it is say that it was the Bolshevik leadership Anderson's own New Left Review/New who conducted the class struggle; or was Left Books that has introduced many of it rather the workers and peasants who the new "true" socialists and their constituted the revolutionary force, the Poulantzian/Althusserian antecedents to force whose interests, social power, and English-speaking audiences. It was in the capacity for collective action determined Anderson-Nairn takeover of the New Left the nature and course of the revolution." Review in the early 1960s that the stated A page later she quotes favourably a Sun­ political project of introducing the dis­ day Times critic of the mainstream histo­ course of continental, especially Parisian. rian of the Russian Revolution, Leonard Marxism, to the much-maligned empiri­ Shapiro: "What brought the Bolsheviks to cism of the English socialist and workers' power was their success in articulating the movement, was first articulated. And for demands welling up from below." (73-4| the next twenty years the eclecticism o( In her quickness to pillory the new "true" Anderson and others at the helm of the socialists for their insistence that review and New Left Books has nurtured. socialism will only come with the inter­ among many tendencies and writers, the vention ol enlightened intellectuals. Wood theories and theorists of the new "true" thus hacks away from dealing with the socialism. This is not to say that Wood role and place of a disciplined vanguard in should have spent a great deal of time cas­ the making of a conscious proletarian ele­ tigating her own publisher, but it is to ment capable of leading the working class suggest that it is a bit much to take at face to socialist victory. Surely the experience value Anderson's rather self-serving of the Russian Revolution does not remarks in his In The Tracks of Historical suggest that the Bolsheviks merely Materialism without so much as raising an articulated the demands of the masses, eyebrow about Anderson's own involve­ though they did, or that the historically- ment in the rise of the new "true" developed party and the class power of socialism. workers and their allies in the dispos­ sessed peasantry were somehow separable The second question that will eat away in terms of what explains how the working at many readers of The Retreat from Class class first took power. Rather, the 1917 is Wood's skirting of the problem of class revolution was a decisive demonstration organization. She ends her text with the of both working-class power and the entirely appropriate conclusion that the necessity of a proletarian party, armed victories and defeats won and suffered by with a programme and willing to act on it, in the struggle to create socialism. the working class show us "what might be accomplished if the labour movement had a political instrument ready to do its job." Wood is too unconcerned with these but throughout her book there is precious realities, a little too ready to descend into 240 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL abstractions. She claims, for instance, with the discovery of the "underground." that, 'Lthe taking of power is no doubt a "black," or informal economy, an econ­ necessary step in the transformation of omy of considerable size unreported in society, but it is an instrument, not itself our measures of economic welfare. But the object, of class struggle." (193) The perhaps the most fundamental criticism of abolition of class itself, according to our traditional treatment of labour and Wood, is what socialism is really all work, at least in the orthodox neo­ about. And to be sure, she is right. But classical approach, is that labour is seen until socialists address how power is to be as an individual, autonomous unit re­ won so that classes can be abolished, even sponding to an economic calculus rather those, such as Wood, who know well the than as one member of a family unit devis­ bankruptcy and banality of the retreat ing collective work strategies to "get by" from class evident in so much of the in a changing economic and social envi­ pseudo-socialist writing of the 1980s, will ronment. share a little ground with the new "true" In Divisions of Labour. R.h. Pahl sets socialists that they distance themselves out to correct this pareellized approach by from. For do they not all want the illusive studying the content, type, divisions, movement — the one of class, the other of the multitudinous sectors — that will life-cycles, class attitudes, and market somehow bring socialism into being? orientation of work in Britain, both through a study of the history of family work strategics, and through a case study Bryan D. Palmer of one contemporary local region in Queen's Universit> southeast England, the island of Sheppey. Summing up his goal, he says: R.E. Pahl, Division* of Labour (Oxford: Work has to be understood both historically and Bas]l Blackwell 1984). in context: it has changed in the past. i( is changing now. and it will continue to change in RKFLKCTING OUR economists approach the future: above all, work done by members of to contemporary society, there has been a households is the central process around which tendency, particularly but not exclusively society is structured. (14) by economists, to treat work primarily as In the historical half of the study, Pahl what people do for pay, in the formal advances a number of arguments intended labour market. A major challenge to this to counter what he considers to be popular narrow approach came with the upsurge of contemporary myths, most specifically women's studies, since unpaid work in the conception of the "right to work." He the home - "women's work" — had means by the right to work the belief that tended to be ignored. This resulted in a the average (male) worker is entitled to downgrading of the importance of women regular, full-time, waged work, a in the economy, particularly in the repro­ phenomenon that he argues has occurred duction of the labour force, and conse­ only once in Britain for any sustained quently a downgrading of women them­ period, during the 1950s and 1960s. selves. In addition to women's contribu­ Using historical material he attempts to tion to the family, however, men also eon- show that this has not been the pattern in tribute to family self-provisioning, per­ the past and. previewing the second half forming such tasks as home and car main­ of the study, is not the pattern of today or tenance and repair, gardening and hunting, of which no record is found in official of the future. statistics. In its stead Pahl argues, the historical pattern has been one of constant adapta­ A second major challenge to the nar­ tion with all members of the family mov­ rowly economic conception of work came ing between self-provisioning, wage REVIEWS 241 labour, and by-employment (secondary How do working-class families cope occupations or crafts) as opportunities with the erosion of male employment in occurred and as the needs of the family contemporary Britain? This is the subject unit dictated. The Industrial Revolution, of the field research reported on in the and the Marxist analysis of its effects, led second half of the book. The simple to an overemphasis on the market subjuga­ answer is a return to the shifting strategies tion of male wage labour (women were of earlier eras, primarily the employment always a small fraction of the industrial of wives and other members of the family wage labour force) to the neglect of unit. But Pahl also found some rather women's irregular, by- and provisioning unexpected results. The poor and unem­ employments. ployed do not appear to respond to the Women were not, he argues, economi­ current situation by increasing their self- cally idle. Nor for the most part were they provisioning or by entering the under­ confined to the home and home work. ground economy. Indeed, Pahl suggests This did not occur until the late nineteenth that rather than expanding in response to and early twentieth centuries, the product the decline in employment, the under­ of an upper middle-class reform ideology ground or informal economy is contract­ made possible by the rising real incomes ing. This leads to the rather depressing of male wage-earners in this class. Yet conclusion that access to money brings this development was frequently impover­ productivity and activity, including self- ishing to the working class. The peak of provisioning work, while lack of money female domesticity occurred in the inter- destroys productivity, activity, and initia­ war years: tive. The development of new, cheap forms of trans­ The major result is that, in contempo­ port, coupled with the growth of new estates of rary Britain, the distribution of work "is council or privately built estates at the edge of becoming increasingly unbalanced" creat­ the major towns and cities, intensified the ing a polarization of families between the physical separation of homes (for women) and haves and have-nots. "The new line of work (for men): women worked at home in class cleavage is now between the middle housing estates and suburbs: men were mass and the underclass beneath it." (313, employed elsewhere. . . . 324) For these new "good" mothers, life in their There is a great deal to admire in Divi­ new. clean homes was not a life of leisure, but sions of Labour, not least of which is the nor was it a life of misery and toil. Housework attempt to integrate patterns of work, expanded to fill the time available and . . . new household strategies, economic change, technology created more work, not less. (74-5) class, and ideology into a holistic theory. However, this was but a brief inter­ It is perhaps this scope that contributes to lude. Women began to re-enter the labour market in a major way in the second half some confusion and a lack of clarity in the of the twentieth century, particularly with argument, that produces some contradic­ the expansion of service and clerical tions, unexplored byways, and weak gen­ employment. Work was, as it had been eralizations. The choice of Sheppey for before, often impermanent and part-time. detailed study can be criticized because its But now there was a major difference. advantage as a research site (isolated, Women were continuing in full-time geographically contained, and with a waged work after marriage. Moreover, homogeneous but unique industrial his­ Pahl argues, this is increasingly necessary tory based on a naval dockyard) make it for the family strategy because of the atypical for purposes of generalization. deindustrialization of Britain and the One can also criticize the rather rambling, decline in regular male waged jobs since anecdotal description of the study area. the 1970s. But these are annoying weaknesses rather 242 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

than fatal flaws and should not deter stu­ lying logic of the pieces collected here is dents of work and labour from a careful seamless. consideration of this ambitious, and at As the author puts it, he begins "with times controversial, book. the assumption that the right of free men and women to withhold their labor and to Paul Phillips engage in various forms of economic pres­ University of Manitoba sure is one of the most fundamental rights that can exist in a democratic society," and proceeds to work through the implica­ William B. Gould !V, Strikes. Dispute tions of his view that "in modern indus­ Procedures, and Arbitration: Essays on trialized economies that are interdepen­ dent, . . . other interests as well as the Labor Law (Westport, CT: Greenwood right to strike are at stake." The result Press 1985). exemplifies the strengths and limitations of the liberal institutional approach. DESPITK BUFFF.TING BY neo- conservatives, liberal institutional ism Gould is well placed within the liberal remains the hegemonic vision in Ameri­ institutional paradigm. He was assistant can labour relations law. With their roots general counsel for the UAW in 1961-2 in the Commons school and its legislative and attorney for the National Labor Rela­ heritage, and the Norris-LaGuardia and tions Board in 1963-5. He has taught law Wagner Acts, writers in this tradition have at Wayne State. Harvard and (currently) fashioned a sophisticated account of the Stanford, and is chairman of the law and compulsory collective bargaining regime legislation committee of the National as an effective reconciliation of property Academy of Arbitrators. Gould knows rights and worker interests- As Karl Klare very well where the lesions are to be has put it. these writers have "under­ found in the regime he and his colleagues stood the need for theory to go beyond the have fashioned. His topics are an itinerary hori/on of the intrasystemic 'interests' of of the trouble spots: public employee bar­ the parties. While liberal collective bar­ gaining; wildcat strikes: labour injunc­ gaining law justifies itself by reference to tions; and rank-and-file dissent. a conception of 'industrial democracy' The injunction question will serve as that ultimately rests on management deci­ an example. The Norris-LaGuardia Act of sion making and command in the work­ 1932, which banned the use of federal place, the hallmark of liberal labor law is court injunctions to frustrate peaceful its active promotion of workers' rights in strikes, signaled the end of some 30 years certain well-defined and circumscribed of judicial terror against the American contexts. The complexity and nuances of labour movement and the ascendancy of liberal collective bargaining doctrine have the liberal institutional alternative. But in made it a remarkable contribution to 1970, in its celebrated Boys Market deci­ post-World War II American political sion. the Supreme Court held that the thought." courts may enjoin wildcat strikes that occur in violation of a collective agree­ In Strikes, Dispute Procedures, and ment provision prohibiting strikes during Arbitration: Essays on Labor Law. Wil­ the term of the agreement. liam B. Gould IV has gathered some twenty years of his writing. The collection Gould recognises that Boys Marker includes scholarly articles, bibliographi­ poses a dilemma for liberal institutional cal notes, and popular commentaries. theory that cannot easily be resolved. Despite the sometimes incongruous Renewed judicial intervention in strike appearance of discontinuity that is the situations is viewed as dangerous because effect of facsimile publication, the under­ of the common law's hostility to collec- REVIEWS 243 tive action. At the same time, the courts address the shrinking usefulness of intervened in Boys Market to give binding "freely bargained" comparisons in a effect to the provisions of a collective model that contemplates next-to-univcrsal agreement and, incidentally, to bolster the arbitration. authority of arbitrators. Gould supplies an Canadian law is sufficiently different extensive and thoughtful analysis of the from American that most of Gould's decision in its legal context. He is at his detailed analyses do not travel well. For best here, showing how the decision example, the legal problem of differ­ might be narrowed, its ill effects entiating wildcats in violation of minimized, the tables turned. At the end negotiated no-strike provisions from of the day, however, the issue proved to be intractable in principle, if not in practice. wildcats in response to employer unfair And here the limits of liberal insti- labour practices simply does not arise tutionalism are approached, where finely here, where strikes during the term of honed analytic discourse must give way to agreements are prohibited by statute. The blather: specifics aside, though, liberal insti­ tutional ism has its distinguished Must significant is the improved position in Canadian practitioners, Paul Weiler being which labor unions now find themselves in the among the most notable, and the distinc­ United States. The relationship between tive Canadian paradigm bears many organized labor and capital can no longer be resemblances to its American cousin. generalized into one involving unequal parlies Both have much to recommend them in in an atmosphere of bitter social slrit'e. Indeed their decency, their concern with fairness, in some instances, il is the unions which now their disdain for arbitrary power, and their hold the cards of power. The labor movement commitment to expanding the legitimacy cannot evade the responsibility of contractual of workers' collective action. Neither, it sanctions when it has voluntarily entered into seems to me, can be expected to burst the the collective agreement tor the benefit of its bounds of pragmatism, where the norma­ members. tive becomes the transformative, and Gould is committed to the right to where the law casts off its chains. strike in theory and the alternative of arbi­ tration in practice. He has a great deal to say about the relationships between arbi­ Paul Craven trators and courts, about the implications York University of binding arbitration on relations between unions and their members, and trie Schragge, Pensions Policy in Brit­ above all about the trade-off between lib­ ain: A Socialist Analysis (London: Rout- erty and community that justifies the sub­ ledge & KeganPaul 1984), stitution of arbitration for the strike in various circumstances. He has next to DURING LAST YEAR'S turmoil at nothing to say, in this book at any rate, Dalhousie University concerning the about the substantive issues that arise in administration's attempt to appropriate $8 either rights or interest arbitration or million from the university's pension about a theory of arbitral decision making funds, I was stopped on the street by that might sustain his optimism. The neighbours and persons I knew only closest we come to these issues is in a slightly who urged professors to "do any­ discussion of interest arbitration for pub­ thing you have to, protect your pensions" lic employees, where labour market com­ — leaving me with the impression that we parability is advanced as a criterion. The were involved in that most rare event, a problem is not so much the age of the strike with a lot of community support. chestnut (the article was published in Similarly, the announcement that the first 1969) as the absence of any attempt to Tory budget would slow down the index- 244 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL ing of Canadian state pensions mobilized through several periods of reform not only the senior population into protest and in level of benefits but also in coverage. political activity and the government No plan has yet been so universal as to rushed to retreat from its position. In cover women labouring in the home or short, pensions are the most politically those whose contribution history was popular single item on the welfare state interrupted. agenda. Even medical care benefits can be Schragge wishes us to measure pen­ whittled away with fewer political conse­ sion achievement against a standard of quences. The most conservative of gov­ true universality. He points out that cer­ ernments and parties feel they must at tain basic assumptions about pensions least rhetorically disavow any tampering have never been challenged within British with the pension system. Why then have parliamentary processes. These assump­ pensions never met the hopes that the elec­ tions are rooted in an acceptance of torate holds for them, hopes for a secure, capitalism itself. It is not questioned by poverty-free old age for virtually every­ parties aspiring to power that guaranteed one. non-means-tested pensions must be tied to Governments are constrained to offer a substantial history of work for wages, modest proposals regarding pensions by nor that workers should contribute from the necessity to demonstrate effectiveness their wages to the pension scheme, nor in fostering conditions conducive to a that redistribution of income and power is healthy balance of payments, high pro­ to be pursued elsewhere than in the pen­ ductivity, and robust capital accumula­ sion instrumentality except to a limited, tion. Otherwise, governments face a strike minimal, and unavoidable extent, nor that by investment capital, or a capital drought a private market system of pensions and an onslaught of press denunciation. In should be accepted or encouraged for fact, as Eric Schragge shows, govern­ those persons whose market power can ments of several stripes are re-active gain them this privilege. These assump­ rather than pro-active in the welfare tions form the outer limit of pension realm. reform. Their impact is to preclude a guarantee of a stable, independent, and How, then, have advances in pensions poverty-free old age to all survivors. ever occurred in late capitalist societies? Schragge's book gives us many good Schragge sets out to explain the answers to this question. changes which have occurred and to dem­ In the first place, advances have onstrate the forces and conditions that occurred only incrementally, from an shape changes in pension policy. He com­ inadequate initial base. In comparison pares and contrasts the major reform pro­ with pre-war state charitable activities and posals of the war and Labour governments the contributory but non-universal (Beveridge, Crossman and Castle) and national insurance, the Beveridge/Keynes those of the Tories (Phillips and Josephs). scheme seemed a great advance. The The comparisons show substantial dif­ nature of the advance has meant that over ferences between parties and within the a period of 40 years state non- same party before and after 1970. The means-tested pensions have worked their comparisons also reveal a basic similarity way up from less than one-fifth to less between parties in both periods as to the than one-third of the average industrial role of pensions in the economy and the wage in Britain and are not proposed to relative reliance upon state or private provi­ escalate to 44 per cent until 1988. This sion. left 54 per cent of the elderly below a Before 1970 both parties accepted a realistically defined poverty line in 1979. substantial and leading role by the state in Pensions have remained inadequate the whole field of welfare provisions and REVIEWS 245

pensions in particular. This was expressed ing pension change, Schragge rejects specifically in the acceptance that univer­ reliance upon one-factor theories. He sality was a necessity. After 1970 the con­ gives short shrift to liberal notions of servative definition that universality was altruism, personality, or "maturity" of the impossible of achievement and undesira­ electorate in accounting for change. Nor ble in its impact defined the parameters of does he stop with Marxist functionalism, the argument to an increasing extent. though he acknowledges Gough's central Labour found itself forced, not only to point that the state must insure the repro­ acknowledge and accommodate the exis­ duction of labour and the maintenance of tence of a private market in pensions (as those unable to work. He gives a much they had done all along), but to encourage greater role to the welfare state as a man­ private market provision in any attempt to ager of conflict between the interests of reform the system towards adequacy. This labour and capital within parameters shift moved welfare in general towards the which insure capital accumulation. In par­ residual role espoused by the conserva­ ticular he carefully connects the response tives in an economy defined by the mar­ of governments in the welfare arena with ket. the specific economic problems and con­ flicts encountered during their terms of This is not to say that vast struggles office. He devotes many pages to specify­ did not take place in the formulation of ing the economic contradictions and pension policy nor that strides towards dilemmas which underlay the policy dis­ adequacy did not occur. In terms of bene­ cussions behind each white paper. fit adequacy Labour's Castle plan of 1978 gave strong assurance against inflation Every writer who adopts a complex erosion to the total income of retirees who form of analysis such as this makes him- receive state and private pensions, gave or herself vulnerable to dispute as to the formal equality to women's pensions, set importance of any single factor in explain­ firm standards for the private pension sys­ ing the historical particulars. Thus, for tem, and for the first time guaranteed that example, the objections raised to Piven the exchequer's contribution would and Cloward's emphasis on agitation and escalate (from the historic 18 per cent) social movement may be applied to with increasing participant contribution. Schragge's assignment of importance to The Castle plan also reinforced the mild class struggle as a determinant. Evidence redistributive effect of pensions between of specific agitation on pension reform is low and high wage earners. Schragge thin, though in Britain in 1971 (and in the judges these changes to be enduring at United States in the late 1940s) it was least up to 1998, the date promised for full clearly present. However it is possible to maturity of the plan. accept Schragge's logic that the relative strength and activity of the labour move­ Earlier battles had been fought and ment coincides rather neatly with won regarding the introduction of advances in pension adequacy, while the earnings-related contributions rather than softening of universal goals coincides with flat rate contributions, and the payment of a period of labour disarray. Moreover, it price-related benefits rather than flat rate is clear that the zero sum economics of benefits. The victory in these battles, this decade constrain both the quantity however, did not always represent a and quality of welfare. Schragge's change towards equality or a substantial achievement is to bring together all these improvement of adequacy for present factors into a convincing argument with recipients of pensions. Just as frequently the kind of detailed documentation one or more so they represented a promise of would expect of a doctoral dissertation. future improvement. In this explanation of the forces shap­ In fact one might wish for a bit less 246 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL detail and certainly one would prefer labour studies, countercultural futurism rather less British administrative jargon. pervades books such as Barry Jones's Keeping track of the proper names associ­ Sleepers. Wuke.': Technology and the ated with British governments and a Future of Work (1982) and James chronology of developments presents a Robertson's Future Work (1985). K fur­ chore. The shame in these little faults is nished some of the ideological agenda of that the comprehensive political economy the 1977 GAMMA Report in Canada. spelled out in the book would be much But it is nonsense, Handy asserts, to more useful to North American students imagine there will ever again be "full- and alert lay readers if they were not over­ time" jobs for all. Thanks to the forward whelmed by British detail. push of technology, we have progressed I hope that Schragge will expand on from the industrial era to the era of ser­ the solutions offered in his conclusion. vices and information. As automation liq­ Essentially, he envisages the devolution of uidates more and more jobs, even service welfare state functions upon the trade and information jobs, people will work for unions and local cooperatives. Through­ pay fewer hours a week, fewer weeks a out the book he is careful to explain that year, and fewer years in a lifetime. The welfare advances are inextricably bound 50,000-hour career will replace the old to changing forms of social control in 100,000-hour model. More people will which, in the pensions example, the opt for part-time jobs, and payment by worker is bound ever more firmly to sell­ fees rather than by wages. More people ing labour power and doing the bidding of will choose self-employment. Labour his/her employer throughout a work life. costs will be cut to help facilitate success­ The devolution of pension administration ful competition in the global marketplace. to trade unions or worker-managed pen­ But all this will be made palatable by wise sion plans would reduce dependence upon public policies that curb exploitation and employer and state, bring pension issues by the arrival of a new cultural paradigm home to the grassroots, and create a proj­ that devalues the importance of material ect of self-management that would take us wealth. "Longer lives and shorter jobs." in the direction of liberation. Handy concludes, "will tend to mean lower incomes. Some no doubt will gel richer, but most will feel poorer, finan­ David P. Williams cially, at least for a while. The new world Dalhousic University may have more wealth of well-being, but. for most people, less conventional Charles Handy, The Future of Work: A wealth." Guide to a Changing Society (Oxford and New York: Basil Blackwelf 1984). The Future of Work, by a British man­ agement scholar and former oil executive, THE PLACE ONCE filled by Utopian keeps its world view under wraps much of socialism has been occupied in recent dec­ the time, but the author is clearly attracted ades by a loosely structured movement of to the countercultural vision. The old countercultural futurism whose founding "full employment society" is well past its spirits include E.F. Schumacher, Ivan peak, he writes. What should, and lllich, and Lewis Mumford. The new Uto­ perhaps will, take its place is a society pians seek to replace our conventional vis­ that values work above jobs. In Handy's ion of a high-growth, high-tech future preferred future, everyone will work as with something gentler. Their keywords much as they like, and jobs, meaning are small, simple, voluntary, decentral­ work for pay. will be shared out fairly, ized, ecological. They abhor both eco­ with everyone assured a decent livelihood nomic and technological determinism. In through a national income scheme or its REVIEWS 247

equivalent, no matter what an individual's As a guide to current trends in the fate is in the job market. capitalist workplace. The Future of Work serves well. Anyone hoping to use it as a The new world will also bring signifi­ prescription for progress, however, will cant changes in education and family life. find it less useful than the visions of the In a chapter on education, Handy urges Utopian socialists of the nineteenth cen­ expanded investment in vocational educa­ tury. Like them. Handy has no credible tion (in schools, homes and workplaces) strategy for getting to his Utopia. But at to prepare young people for the more least their Utopias were Utopian. The demanding jobs of the future. As children paradise of countercultural futurism stay at home longer to learn trades, and as sounds as much like fun as the prospect of reduced incomes in later life make the camping in the woods with all the folks, cost of maintaining separate households forever. Nice for two weeks perhaps, but prohibitive, families will grow larger enough is enough. again. Three generations may routinely live and work under the same roof. Busy, convivial homes may replace the lonely W. Warren Wagar dens found in our modern suburbs. State University of New York at Binghamton For the most part. The Future of Work is addressed to British readers and to the C. Stewart Doty, The First Franco- special needs of Britain, but with shifts of Americans. New England Life Histories emphasis here and there, the trends it From the Federal Writers' Project, identifies and the message it purveys can IV3X-39 (Orono: University of Maine apply to any emerging post-industrial 1985). society. The message itself is typical of the milder varieties of countercultural DES LE PREMIER coup d'oeil il se degage futurism. There is the usual pious hope de 1'ouvrage sur les Franco-Americains that corporations will not be unduly prepare par C. Stewart Doty une aura de greedy, that governments in a capitalist competence et de travail bien fait. Commc environment can legislate social justice, les ouvriers dont il a longuement observe and that values will miraculously change Ic temoignage, Doty aborde son objet as a new paradigm descends from the sky. avee franchise, exactitude, et un certain Austerity will suddenly seem comforta­ amour du detail qui ne laisse pas place a ble. Odd jobs and piecework in the home une improvisation hativc. Dans le genre, will suddenly seem chic. Dwindling real The First Franco-Americans reste un des incomes and early retirement will sud­ meilleurs livrcs qu'il m'ait ete donne de denly seem fair. Because people adopt consutter sur la vie quotidienne des emi­ new priorities and assign new meanings to gres canadiens-framjais aux Etats-Unis, old words, all will be well. surtout parce qu'il s'en degage une Regarding other matters. Handy has impression de professionnalisme, de sim- plicite et un profond desir de se mettre little or nothing to say. He is oblivious to vraiment a 1'ecoute des hommes et des the Orwellian implications of his remarks femmes qui ont vecu Podyssee du grand on language. On the economic and social deplacement vers la Nouvelle-Angletcrre. dynamics of late capitalism, the future of Dans ce cas, Doty a su evitcr I'ecueil du the global economy, the plight of labour in commentaire complaisant, ou cette especc the Third World, the impact on work of d'ideologie populiste qui fait que parfois militarism and the arms race, and the ce type de livre ressemble a des fourre- realities of racism and structural poverty tout, oil s'exprime une somme heteroclite throughout much of the developed world, et inegale d'idees et d'opinions sans tami- he is mostly silent. 248 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

sage prcalable. La presentation visuclle les annees trente un age plutot avance. et est egalemcnt soignee, lcs photographies leurs propos nous ramcncnt parlois a la bien choisies et rcproduites sur dcs pres­ periode qui suivit immediatement la ses dc qualitc. guerre civile americaine. Presque toutes Fort heurcusement aussi, Doty a su egalemcnt etaient necs au Canada et puiscr a une scule source historiquc appartenaient a cette generation qui avait Tcnsemble dcs temoignages qu'il a col- connu ^emigration de premiere main ct lige dans son livrc, ce qui donnc a avait garde un souvenir indelibile de leur l'ouvrage unc indeniable unite dc lieu ct pays d'origine. Assez typiquement, il se dc temps, et rend lcs different* chapitres degagc de leur propos un optimismc qui comparables cntre cux. Les textes reeueil- surprend par son ampleur, sauf pcut-etre lis par Doty ont tous ete rediges au cours dans le cas plus marginal des ouvricrs du des annees trente, au plus fort de la grandc granite de la ville de Barre au Vermont. depression, alors que des millicrs d'ecri- Unc foi irresistible envers lcs Htals-Unis vains et de journalises americains etaient et le sysieme capitaliste dc production reduils au chomagc et a la misere. Cons- animc les temoignages, surtout ceux cient de la detresse vecue par toutcs les recucillis a Manchester et a Old Town, categories dc travailleurs. le New Deal dc comme si aucun obstacle humain. aucune Roosevelt avail en effet mis sur pied a tra- injustice socialc n'avait pu contenir ou vers le Work Progress Administration decourager la marce montantc dcs emi­ (WPA) un ensemble de programmes desti­ grants en provenance du Quebec. Le cas nes a un grand evcntail de professions, dc Philippe Lemay. rctraite, travailleur du dont le Federal Writers' Project, qui entre textile des I'age dc huit ans et premier autres avait subventionne la collects dc contremaitre francophone a la Amoskeag millicrs dc recits de vie puiscs a meme le Manufacturing Co., rcste patent: vecu americain. Ccs textcs sans pretention demcurcrcnt enfouis a la Bibliotheque du Our American overseers were always fair ;md Congrcs, a Washington, jusqu'a ce qu'un just to us and it is fair and just to admit it. They premier inventaire de ce materiel inedit were fine men and knew iheir business. They soit fait par restitution en 1982. C'est de ne^er bothered those who did their duty. We can certainly he thankful io them for their ce corpus apparamment incpuisablc que decent treatnieni of us. sont sortis la vingtainc de temoignages contenus dans The First Franco- Plusieurs des entrcvues contiennent Anwruans, tous ecrits par des gens qui le des pedes scmblables, qui finalement plus souvent partagcaient avec leur infor- revelent beaucoup Petal d'esprit des mateur une connatssance profonde des Franco-Amerieains de la premiere genera­ conditions sociales ainsi decrites. Bien tion quant aux conditions sociales qui leur sur. unc ccrtaine part d'edition critique avait ete rcservees dans les usines et les s'excrcera dc la part du responsable du Pctits Canada de la Nouvelle-Anglelcrre, livre, mais sans que Ton sentc dc cassure et que des etudes aujourd'hui montrent avec I'esprit premier du lexte, sans que avoir ete plutot sombres. Le livre de Doty soit etouffe la fraicheur ct la naivete de excelle done, parce qu'il ne s'agit pas certains intervenants. Chaquc chapitre est d'un ensemble de textes manipules par habilement amend par Doty et sa docu­ unc plume consciente d'ellc-meme, a mentation en general appuic bien lcs nous faire entrerdans l'intimitc touchante entrcvues d'epoque, sans en diminuer ni d'individus abandonnes a leur iniervie- la portee. ni la pertinence. Peut-etre weur, rives sur leurs sentiments ct leur aurait-on souhaitc toutefois que I'cditeur vecu. et livres passionncment au deroute- precise un peu plus quels criteres ont pre­ ment des differenls episodes de leur exis­ side au choix des textes, ct selon quelle tence. II n'y intcrvienl pas ce processus de distanciation critique qui caracterise lcs REVIEWS 249

ecrits et les documents de source secon­ dc la domination disproportionnee des dare. Je reconnais bien la. pour i'avoir elites locales. II faut aussi se mefier du pratique moi-meme en Nouvelle- contenu factuel des entrevues, dont beau- Angleterre, la vitalite et la spontaneite qui coup presentent des opinions farfelues, emancnt des entrevues en direct qui, comme celle d'un des frcres Morin de Old quand 1'informatcur est de qualite, peu- Town qui, sans doute emigre directcmenl vent fournir au chcrcheur ses meilleurs aux Etat-Unis depuis son village natal, intuitions, croyait que Rivicre-du-Loup etait avec Seront toutefois dcc,us qui consulte- 7 000 ames une des plus grosses villes du ront le livrc de Doty pour y trouver unc Canada et que tous les citoyens du Quebec image de la vie franco-americaine du savaient fa ire usage de la langue de temps. Bien sur, comme le dit I'auteur, Moliere. Beaucoup parmi les personnes ['histoire de cette emigration a trop sou- interviewees n'auraient sans doute pu vent ete ecrite en function des critercs relire qu'avec grande peine dans les dos­ d'une certaine elite professionnellc ct ele- siers du WPA le texte les concernant. ricale francophone, bien rctranchec dans Faut-il en vouloir a Doty de partager les fortercsscs institutionnelles de la un peu ce blind spot des premiers auteurs Franco-Americaine qu'ellc avait grande- du volume: I'essentiel dc ses sources sont ment contribue a eriger sur le plan du lea­ americaines et redigees en anglais, toutes dership. Les ouvriers emigres n'en interessantes ct pertinentcs qu'elles puis- vivaient pas tnoins a leur maniere unc sent etre. II est vrai que la litterature e! la intense culture d'origine rurale quebe- culture franco-americaine ne se laissent coise ou acadienne, et qui est loin de se pas penetrer facilement, meme d'un point resumer comme les entrevues le suggerent de vue quebecois, tant elles oscilient et a des veillecs du bon vieux temps ou a des vacillent a la frontiere de deux mondes, prieres en famille. Le malheur est portant en quelque sorte au plus profond qu'aucun des ecrivains engages par le d'elle-memes, comme au sein de toute Federal Writers' Project nc possedait, population immigrante d'ailleurs, les malgrc leurs multiples talents, une idee germes d'une assimilation progressive a la meme vague de la culture d'origine des societe d'accueil americaine. Le tout est gens qu'ils couchaient sur papier. Bien de savoir bien mesurer ce cheminement sur Woonsocket etait la villc la plus fran­ parfois imperceptible et indeniable vers chise d'Amcrique apres Quebec, devan- les valeurs et la langue d'une autre cant meme le Montreal du debut du siecle, societe, et dans ce but les temoignages du mais rien par exemple dans 1'entrcvue Federal Writers' Project doivent bien etre aupres d'Henry Boucher de Woonsocket le pire des outils. Ces textes nc constituent n'y parait; en toutc chose I'ccrivain du pas non plus comme le pretend Doty le WPA ne voit en lui qu'un simple ouvrier premier temoignage fourni par I'histoire victime des conditions sociales de son quant au vecu historique franco- lemps. The First Franco-Americans a un americain. Deja en 1883 le cure J.-A. peu en fait le gout inaeheve d'une de ces Chevalier, dc Manchester, NH, avait fameuse galettcs de sarrazin cheres au decrit les conditions de vie des ouvriers palais des emigrants, et qu'on aurait fait francophones de sa ville devant la com­ cuirc d'un seul cote. mission Blair, ctablie par le senat ameri- cain pour etudier les rapports entre la Pour cette raison le livre de Doty n'est classe ouvriere et 1c capital industriel; pas a mon avis du tout representatif du sans compter une masse considerable niveau d'assimilation culturellc ou d'ame- d'ouvrages litteraires parus en francos au ricanisation propre au monde franco- Quebec et en Nouvelle-Angletcrre des la americain des annees trcnte, meme en fin du dix-neuvieme siecle, et qu'il serait maintenant I'hypothese dans ce domaine 250 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

trup long d'cnumerer ici, Malgre ccltc tion tente de reflcter cette evolution. Leur inexactitude dc taille les conclusions et les textc permct d'apprecier l'ampleur des reflexions de Doty dans son afterword recherches effectuees ou en cours, sug- son! tres valables et devraient mener a dc gcre quelques pistes et hypotheses intercs- nouvelles recherches prometteuscs pour santes mais ne fait qu'effleurer les nouvel­ notre comprehension de I'histoirc les approches theoriques qui, depuis quel­ ouvricre franco-americaine. ques annees, proposent d'articuler sphere privee et publique afin de mieux compren- Pierre Anctil dre I'experiencc historique vecue par les Institut quebecois de femmes. La plupart des articles sont d'ail- recherche sur la culture leurs assez decevants a ce chapitre, leur Montreal objet d'etude se limitant au role joue par les femmes dans la sphere publique et marchande. Marie Lavigne Yolande Pinard, Travuil- leuses et femin'tstes: Les Femmes dans tu Les six premiers essais doni trois societe quebecoise (Montreal: Boreal apparaissaient dans I'edition originale Express 1983). (ceux de Cross, Lavigne et Stoddart. et Gagnon), conccrnent le travail salarie. CL RRCUEIL D'ARTICLES consiitue une Les contributions de Cross, Trofimen- rendition augmentee d'un ouvrage publie koff, et Lavigne et Stoddart cxaminent le en 1977 et intitule: Les Femmes dans la travail salarite feminin de la fin du dix- societe quebecoise (repris ici en sous- neuvieme siecle aux annees quarante et titre). On y retrouve les huit essais de dresscnt un portrait general des conditions I'edition originale et sept nouveaux textes de travail, salaircs et secteurs d'aetivites en plus d'une presentation eompletement reserves aux femmes. Ces articles font transformec. L'ensemble du livrc s'inte- surtout (Mat de la discrimination subie par resse aux activitis que les femmes ont les femmes sur le marche du travail et de exercees dans la societe quebecoise depuis I'opposition dont a fait I "objet le travail 1880 et, a ce litre, s'inscrit dans le pre­ salarie teminin sans que Tun ou 1'autre ne mier courant historiographique de l'his- soil articule a 1'ensemble des rapports toire des femmes alors que les pionnieres, sociaux. L'arttcle de Johanne Daigle sur puisqu'il fallait bien commenccr quelque 1'evolution de 1'Alliance des infirmieres part, oricntaient leurs recherches vers le prescnte un cas interessant de syndicalisa- travail salarie. 1c militantisme feminin et tion au sein d'une profession feminine le discours vehicule par les elites. II perdue eomme une vocation par un patro- s'agissait alors de demontrer que les nat lui aussi majoritairement feminin. La femmes, malgre le silence de 1'histoire a periode etudiee, 1946-66, est marquee par leur sujet, avaient effectivement oeuvre la prise en charge par 1'Ltat des services dans la sphere publique et cela, en depit hospitaliers dont I'auteurs analyse les con­ des obstacles dresses contre elles. sequences pour le metier et la syndicalisa- tion des infirmieres. Elle souligne leur Depuis la premiere edition, I'histoire volonte autonomistc qu'ctle assouie a la des femmes a elargi son champs d'etude fois a I'inadequation des structures syndi- pour y inciure la sphere domestique, cales et au desir des infirmieres de profes- diversific ses sources afin de mieux rendrc sionnaliser leur metier. compte de son objet et remis en cause les fondements memes de la discipline histo- La situation des femmes dans le mou- rique en proposani l'utilisation de nou­ vement syndical quebecois fait 1'objet de veaux outils conceptuels et methodologi- deux articles de Mona-Josee Gagnon. ques. Le bilan historiographique propose Dans un premier texte, paru dans la pre­ par Lavigne et Pinard en guise d'introduc- miere edition, elle constate, par l'etude de REVIEWS 251 revolution des trois centrales syndicates 1'Etat et I'Eglise sur ces cercles tant leur (CSN, CEQ, FTQ) entre 1940 et 1970, que prises de positions et leur perceptions des ces dernieres se sont trouvees a la remor- fermieres et de leur role presentent une que des ideologies societales en ce qui belle unanimite conforme a I'ideologie concerne leur perception du travail salarie clerico-nationaliste. De meme, I'hypo- feminin. Dans un deuxieme aussi inedit, these voulanl que la valorisation des «Les Comites syndicaux de condition industries domestiques par les cercles ait feminine," I'auteure analyse le pheno- «permis a I'agriculture quebecoise de mene dc re/apparilion de ces comites au ralenlir le processus d'integration du cours des annees soixante-dix el examine grand capital,» (243) nous semble hardie. leur fonctionncment et les limites de leurs L'etude des communautes religieuses possibilites d'action au sein des structures de femmes, tout comme celle des femmes syndicates actuelles. Ellc constate en rurales d'ailleurs, est relativement nou- outre, que malgre la presence de ces comi­ velle et constitue un apport important a tes, les femmes sont encore minoritaires cette deuxieme edition du recueil. Les aux postes-cles en raison des problemcs articles de Marta Danylewycz et Miche- qu'elles rencontrent a cumuler travail line Dumont portant sur les religieuses domestiquc, salarie, et militantisme syn­ proposent une devaluation de leurs activi­ dic al. tes et, dans le cas de Dumont, de leurs motivations. Pour Danylewycz, les preoc­ Avec les deux articles suivants, on cupations sociales des feministes laiques aborde un autre facctte de I'activite visible au debut du siecle auraient permis un rap­ des femmes. «Des Debuts du mouvemcnl prochement avec les communautes reli­ des femmes a Montreal» de Yolande gieuses de femmes egalement impliquecs Pinard et «La Federation nationale Saint- dans les services sociaux ct de same. Jean-Baptiste et les revendications femi- Cettc collaboration aurait finalement nistes au debut du 20e sieclc» de Lavigne, debouchc sur une lutte commune pour Pinard, et Stoddart retracent les origines I'acces des filles a 1'education superieure, de deux mouvements feministes, le Mon­ ce que Tamene a associer les religieuses treal Council of Women et la Federation aux premieres luttes feministes. Dumont nationale Saint-Jean-Baptiste, decrivent va plus loin en suggerant que les commu­ leurs activites et leurs luttes et definissent nautes religieuses de femmes, en raison les courants ideologiques auxquels ils sc du role important qu'elles ont joue dans rattachent. Le textc de Ghislaine Dcsjar- les institutions scolaires et hospitalieres, dins sur les cerclcs de fermieres nous per- auraient constitue une «forme deviee de met de constater que les revendications feminisme,» (279) les postulantes voyant des feministes bourgeoises n'ont pas tou- la leur seulc chance de s'affirmerdans une jours ete partagecs par l'ensemble des societe qui n'admettait pas qu'une femme femmes. Ce mouvement de femmes rura- excrce d'autres fonctions sociales que les, voue a la defense de leur fonction de celles d'epouse et de mere, a moins de productrices condamnait en effet la lutte porter le voile. De meme, la possibility de des feministes urbaines pour I'obtention faire carriere sans cntrer en communaute du droit de vote, I/auteure y voit plu- depuis 1960 expliquerait la baisse specta- sieurs raisons: la perception faussee que culaire du recrutement et les nombreuses les fermieres avaient des revendications «sorties.» Ce rapport entre condition feministes. susceptibles a leurs ycux de feminine et vocation religieuse, bien que detruire la famille, et le desinteret dcs seduisant, semble sur-estimer les possibi­ feministes elles-memcs a sensibiliser les lites offertes par la vie en communaute en femmes rurales sur cettc question. On ce qui a trait a la ''realisation person­ peut toutefois se demander si I'auteure ne nel le.» sous-cstime pas l'influence exercee par 252 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

Qu'il soil question des travailleuses ou tement explore. Les femmes rurales et les des feministes, la plupart des articles sou- religieuses, entre autres, constituent deux lignent que les limites de Icurs activites el groupes encore mal connus. Les articles a de leurs luttes ont ete definics par une leur sujet proposent des pistes et hypothe­ societe masculine impregnee de I'ideolo- ses interessantes mais qui devront etre gic clerico-nationalisle. C'est ce que abordees en fonction des nouvclles pro- viennent etayer les textes de Trofimenkoff blematiques developpecs depuis quelques e! Stoddart sur Henri Bourassa et la Com­ annees. Trop souvcnt en effet, ces articles mission Dorion par une analyse du dis- se contentent de souligner la contribution cours de l'homme politique et des juristes et/ou dc denoncer I'opprcssion subie par a I'egard des femmes et de leurs revendi- les femmes dans la societe quebecoise cations. L'article de Stoddard jette un sans en expliquer les fondements. Afin regard nouveau sur le rule des feministes d'en arriver a une integration du prive et dans la mise sur pied dc celte commission du public, du masculin et du feminin et souligne qu'elle a ete beaucoup plus eomme le souhaitent les editrices, 1'his- une tentative de justification du statut des toire des femmes devra questionner la femmes dans le Code civil qu'une verita­ division sexuelle du travail et la construc­ ble enquetc destince a la transformer. tion de I'identite de genre ce qui lui per- mcttra d'atteindre un niveau d'expljcation Ainsi, les trois principals preoccupa­ plus satisfaisant dc la place dcs femmes tions des premieres historiennes, travail dans les rapports sociaux. salarie, militantisme feminin, et discuurs ideologique, sont couvcrts par ce recueil. Les ajouts par rapport a la premiere edi­ Denyse Baillargeon tion demonlrent d'ailleurs que ce champs Universite de Montreal de la recherche n'a pas encore ete comple-

Labour/Lf Travail 15 published Richard Coe's review of Edoardo Masi's China Winter. That review was edited for length and Professor Coe feels that the resulting deletions changed the politics of the review. Especially important, in his view, were cuts of material emphasizing the accomplishments of the People's Repub­ lic and the critical solidarity with which both Professor Coe and Edoardo Masi view the Chinese experience. As Coe wrote, "The accomplishments of the Peo­ ple's Repuhlic should not be underes­ timated." We regret any misunderstand­ ings that these deletions may have caused.

G.S. Kcaley B.D. Palmer